brand should I buy? It needs to sound powerful and not like a ricer. Also what other performance upgrades should i purchase
You can go with a single chamber muffler, like the flowmaster super 10 series.
http://www.flowmastermufflers.com/ or you can go with the Cherry bomb mufflers which is much economical then any other performance muffler company out there.
http://www.cherrybomb.com/ I used to have the 40 series flowmaster and now I'm running the
http://www.magnaflow.com/ system.
I would not run anything larger then 2.5 single exhaust, larger then that would cause your engine to loose your bottom end torque.
As for getting more HP and torque, look up my write on modifying the Throttle body blade. You can also remove the screen from the front of the MAF sensor to give you even more air flow, remove the MAF sensor and place it on a table screen side down. Carefully snake a screw driver through the MAF so as to not to touch the electrodes in the center of the MAF. To knock the screen free from the MAF sensor, just knock the screw driver through till the screen falls through and clear from the MAF sensor, then just re install and enjoy your free HP improvement and this would be a great time to clean the MAF sensor also with MAF sensor cleaner.
Forget about the high air flow cone filter, just modify your air cleaner box. Remove your air filter cleaner and you'll see the restricted intake tube. Cut the front of the air box where the restrictive tube to give you a better air flow, and this will give you a few more HP and at the same time will help keep the heat of the engine away from the intake. Once that is done, all you have to do is get a K&N high flow air cleaner and start making some noise
Good luck and this should help.
http://gmcowners.com/gmc-forum/showthread.php?t=10246 Send Member barks507 a private message about the Throttle body blade, MAF sensor and air box cleaner mods. He's up and down the roads now going after V8's off the line, the crazy stop light warrior LOL.