I am getting my truck painted, is it best to put stacks on after the paint job or before? Those with stacks, how much of a pain is it when you need to load and unload, say sheets of 4x8 plywood?

I may plan other mods to my diesel later- what is the best size exhaust to get that is good for the stock motor and will not have to be modded any further if I go some big upgrades?

 

Depending on how soon you're getting it painted, I'd put them in, they aren't hard to take out, only a few clamps. As far as size, go with 4" back to 5" stacks. 4" won't hurt you powerwise, but will help with much better airflow when you bomb it. I'm putting my stacks in tomorrow

 

I agree with the 4" to 5" above.

If I were wanting a real bang up job, I think that I would put the stacks in getting all your holes drilled and so forth. Take 'em out, get it painted, then reinstall them.

On this truck, I drilled the hole in the bed prior to getting the Line-X. Worked out well. One word of caution - if you do something like this, make darned for sure that the driveshaft is covered under the bed. Otherwise, the overspray from the bed lining around the hole will ruin your driveshaft, and your day...

Loading and unloading 4x8 stuff is really not that much worse. With the 5"stacks I lost maybe 6 inches or so of bed.

Matt