2006 Factory exhaust replacement

downthepines

TJ Enthusiast
Joined
Mar 13, 2019
Messages
292
Location
Canada
Hey guys,

I am looking at replacing the exhaust with the exception of the cats, Curious what others have ran. I am looking to keep it "stock" but want to consider all replacement options, in the stock size. Thank you.
 
If you’re looking for something that’s OE equivalent in terms of noise levels and resistance to rust, it doesn’t exist. Every other option will be louder or less robust.

I have Magnaflow stainless steel cats and their stainless steel cat back that they make for Quadratec. The muffler held up without any signs of rust through its first winter but it is louder than the OE muffler. I recently checked with a custom exhaust shop about a quieter muffler and they said they wouldn’t be able to provide anything that would hold up as well and suggested I take some measurements and find a muffler I could replace myself.

Others may have suggestions based on their experiences. It was important to me that I could do the work myself and that the entire system would hold up to road salt.
 
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I have a Borla cat back and love it. I put it on my XJ way back in the day and the XJ fell apart after 300K miles, but the Borla was fine. High quality product, but you have to pay for it. Worth it IMHO.
 
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Hey guys,

I am looking at replacing the exhaust with the exception of the cats, Curious what others have ran.
I replaced my stock exhaust last winter with a stainless system. The header pipe, cat and muffler were off the shelf Magnaflow. Fit was OK but not perfect. Tailpipe ended up being custom stainless in 2.5” (stock was 2.25”). Sound is great but that really depends on what you like. Stock was overly quiet for me. I think a straight six sounds amazing so I like to hear it. Definitely not loud or obnoxious though. Has a little burble between shifts and on deceleration around 1500-2000 rpm. One thing though: the system is less restrictive than stock which seems to rob some low end torque, so if you are staying with a stock motor, keeping the pipe diameter stock is probably better. I’ve read this elsewhere and seen it myself on other vehicles. Upside is more power and more freely revving at high RPM but prob not relevant for a Jeep, unless you’re mud bogging.
 
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