i'm new to jeeps. i recently bought a 98 xj 2 door 150k on the clock. exhaust manifold is cracked, and it needs an exhaust. i'm going to be driving it mostly on the street. so i'm looking for advice on a new manifold and cat back exhaust.or any other upgrades for a mostly street machine
thanks mike

 

If the exhaust manifold I'd cracked the motor mounts are probably dead as well as the trans mount. I would replace those 3 while your at it.

I recently did everything past the header on mine using walker factory replacements and a dynomax cat back. Pretty cheap and not loud at all. I don't particularly care for loud exhaust on an xj.

I ran the mbrp cat back previously and it stuck down too far and interfered with the leaf springs.

 

How do you want it to sound?

 

a little rumble but not loud. thanks for the tip on mtr mounts

 

First off, this topic has been discussed a considerable amount. If you search the site, you'll find dozens of threads on it with all the information you can handle. The best way to search the site is to ignore the site's own search function and instead go to Google and use the "site:" tag, like so:

site:cherokeeforum.com headers

Using "site:cherokeeforum.com" restricts the search results to this site, but you're using Google instead of that terrible search button above.

For the exhaust, Gibson, Banks and Borla cat-backs will give you that. A couple of the Flowmaster models are quiet, but personally I don't like the way they sound. To me the Flowmasters always seem to make the 4.0L sound like a giant lawnmower, and the louder ones are just obnoxious. The better quality (and higher priced) brands will generally give you a deeper rumble without the buzz.

As for the manifold, you have a lot of choices. There's nothing wrong with grabbing another one out of the junk yard if money is tight. You can order a stock replacement. You can go with a cheap APN header (but you get what you pay for). Or you can consider one of the dozens of better headers on the market. If you find a brand you think you like, read up on the discussions of it to see if it has any problems.

Personally, I have a Banks header ceramic coated by Swain, a Magnaflow catalytic converter and a Gibson stainless cat-back, and I love the way my rig sounds. But that's almost $1300 from the header gasket back, so you have to keep your own budget in mind. For most of the suggestions you'll get, you can find video on YouTube to get an idea what they'll sound like.

Before you spend a lot of money on a new header, I would reiterate the suggestion to swap out your motor mounts. Movement of the engine contributes to damage to the exhaust, and it would be a shame to spend a lot of money on a shiny new header only to crack it because you didn't swap out the mounts.

 

I recently replaced mine from the up pipe to the tail pipe using basic Walker parts and a magna flow cat, bosch O2 sensor. All from Amazon and about $260 to the door, once I went to the local stores to get a few extras still in for less than $300.

 

If you want to do this without spending a ton of money, do an APN header or Dorman OE replacement, a cat from Performance-Curve.com, NGK O2 sensor, and a Dynomax cat-back. Less than $400 will easily give you everything you need.

Or if you want to spend a ton like I did... (bottom line cost was in the $1000 ballpark; I feel a bit guilty, but the system is superb; don't dare tell me it sounds like a lawn mower)
Thorley header
Stainless spun cat from Performance-Curve.com
Stainless muffler (Flowmaster Super 50 Delta Flow in my case)
Have a local shop fab new down pipe and tailpipe out of stainless

 

, How about some whistle tips ?