DIY Stainless Steel Exhaust - A Sound Alternative

To keep the exhaust tucked up nice and high in the frame, once clear of the bellhousing crossmember, I kicked it up and over the transmission crossmember using a 90-degree bend cut in half and rotated 180-degrees, in effect making a "s" bend

I added another flange in front of the CPP rear crossmember and then repeated the ‘s’ bend trick before the exhaust met up with the Hushpower mufflers, which are stainless items as well.

With the exhaust tacked in place, it was time to add a couple of hangers to support the whole assembly. Placed in a vise, the solid rod is easily bent to fit the contour of the exhaust tubing …

… then tacked into place.

Adding a pair of exhaust tips is the icing on the proverbial cake. I used a piece of wood on two jack stands to ensure that the tips were level and flush before tacking them in place.

I trimmed the straight bit of tubing before placing it between the two fish-mouth ends and mocking it in place. This assembly will be the h-pipe, which is used to balance the exhaust gas pulses. If your truck “raps” when you let off the throttle, chances are you need an h-pipe installed in your exhaust system.

First, I marked the area where the h-pipe intersects each exhaust, then drilled a one-inch hole in the center.

It’s not necessary to make the hole any larger as this little bit is all that’s required to balance the exhaust pulses between the two sides.

Here’s the h-pipe tacked into place.

Since the entire exhaust is stainless, it isn’t necessary (or desirable!) to MIG weld everything together. Instead, I opted to TIG weld everything on a table where I could do so comfortably and carefully using a Lincoln 175 machine—ER308L stainless steel TIG welding wire is used to keep impurities out of the welded seam and prevent corrosion.

After the better part of an afternoon, I had the entire exhaust TIG welded up and ready to rock. The gray you see on the flanges and hangers is high-temp paint, necessary because those components are mild steel and will rust over time, unlike the stainless steel components.

Flowmaster’s ball flange unions work great for splitting the exhaust system up into manageable sections and allow you to make changes later on down the road (such as engine or muffler swaps or if you plan on shortening the frame).

CPP designed their crossmember to clear 3-inch tubing so our 2 1/2-inch fit with room to spare. It’s worth mentioning though that care be taken throughout the build process to maintain plenty of clearance around the exhaust near brake and fuel lines as well as anything that may potentially come in contact with it.

To reduce drone and overall engine noise inside the cab, I ran the Hushpower HP-2 mufflers as far back as I could. Thanks to their dimunitive size (18x5 1/2x4-inches) compared to other mufflers, I was able to mount them above the rear trailing arms and dumped the tip in front of and under the rear axle.

And there you have it, a full-on custom exhaust done in two days using a couple hand tools and a welder.