The old war bird has done me right over the years. Kept the construction money flowing in the boom times; got me to the unemployment office in the flat times. She never fails to start and I can load ‘er down like no one’s business. It’s only fitting that I outfit her with a real nice exhaust system.

I read the truck mags and forums and I’m down to 2 brands�"Magnaflow and Flowmaster. Both are popular with the truck crowd, each camp claiming their brand is king. Instead of listening to a bunch city-slicker fools, I got to the bottom of this myself. Let’s start with Magnaflow.

Magnaflow has been in the performance-exhaust game for about 25 years. They’re located in southern California�"the heart of hot-rod country. Magnaflow banners are plastered all over the race tracks and a fair amount of the racers are using ‘em.

Like all the other exhaust makers, Magnaflow yammers on about mandrel-bent this and that. Since that means nothing to me, I need some numbers. The Magnaflow kit for my rig claims 22 horsepower and 22 ft-lbs of torque. Not bad considering me and my buddy Bobby can bolt it up in a coupla hours. For the price, it works out to about $25 per horsepower gained.

What about Flowmaster? Again, it seems like all exhaust companies want us to believe mandrel-bending is akin to the second coming. I mean, does anyone crush-bend their tubes? Come on guys, tell us something new.

Anyway, back to Flowmaster. These guys have also been around for about 25 years. They hail from northern California�"the heart of hippie country. But, I won’t hold that against them. Flowmaster systems are really popular with racers and they seem to dominate the other companies in brand visibility.

The Flowmaster system for my rig claims�"you guessed it�"22 horsepower. Of course, the Flows cost a little less, averaging about $20 per gained horsepower. The difference is the material. Flowmaster uses aluminized steel, Magnaflow uses stainless. This could come down to a longevity issue.

Since I really love my old Betty, she’s getting’ the Magnaflow system. I plan to keep ‘er for the duration, so stainless steel is the way to go. As far as performance, both brands seem to deliver about the same power and torque.