Ive heard so much about keeping the tail pipes the same size to keep the backpressure near factory.Whats the big deal? On the trucks there are 4 catalytic converters that should be able to do that.

 

Cats are no longer as resrictive as they once were. If you go to the aftermarket exhaust section you find a post by a member who lost his low end torque by putting on too free flowing an exhaust system. The computer/engine combo in these trucks seem to need the back pressure.

 

Mike I would urge caution if you are considering a different exhaust for your truck. There seems to be a very small margin of error for the exhaust flow rate at least on my '97 5.4L. I spent a lot of money finding this out. There is a thread titled "I think I screwed it up good" in the other exhaust section that explains what I did to my exhaust.HTH.

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Dave Sohmer
97 F-150 SC FS XLT 5.4L,Sherrod Conversion Pkg. consisting of full ground effects,running boards leather interior,wood grain dash, Cervini Cowl Induction Hood, Dual Exhaust, K&N FIPK, SportTek tonneau.

 

With my exhaust system (stock system) i plan on just putting on a tip to increase the sound. I realize that trucks are very heavy vehicles, and they require a lot of torque to get them accelerating quickly.

However, if i were to get a exhaust system, I would have it exiting before the rear wheel instead of behind it. Thus causing a shorter exhaust system, but leaving the same back pressure. I know that the reason why this was changed from the 97's to the more current truck was because consumers were complaining about noise in the cabin, but screw the noise, i want the little extra performance advantage that it offers.

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Currently:
1999 Black F150, 4.6L 5spd manual, reg. cab, long bed, 3.55, 60/40 split bench cloth seats, black vinyl floor, K&N air filter with partial open box mod., Home Made Cold Air Intake, 10 disc sony cd changer, Wet Okole seat covers, Superchip, 285/60/16 tires, Seat belt cushions, modified the silencer (by removing it, duct-tapped the hole from the outside, and put it back in.)

Future:
4.10 gear, bug deflector, fender flares, hard tonneau cover, roll pan, ProCharger Supercharger, shaved tailgate handle, and custom paint & striping.

 

Dissonance, another reason the exhaust was moved to behind the wheel in '98 was due to the pitting and discoloring of the wheel as a result of being in the exhaust path. Seems that in colder climes the exhaust condensation carried caustic elements that would attack the wheel and cap. There was a Technical Service Bulletin issued where Ford Dealers would replace (at no cost to the truck owner) the 'before-wheel' exhaust with the 'after-wheel' exhaust.

Just wanted to throw that in to the mix...

Tom in Tacoma

 

Lucky me, i live in florida. I wear shorts on christmas day.

Wish it would snow here at least once though.

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Currently:
1999 Black F150, 4.6L 5spd manual, reg. cab, long bed, 3.55, 60/40 split bench cloth seats, black vinyl floor, K&N air filter with partial open box mod., Home Made Cold Air Intake, 10 disc sony cd changer, Wet Okole seat covers, Superchip, 285/60/16 tires, Seat belt cushions, modified the silencer (by removing it, duct-tapped the hole from the outside, and put it back in.)

Future:
4.10 gear, bug deflector, fender flares, hard tonneau cover, roll pan, ProCharger Supercharger, shaved tailgate handle, and custom paint & striping.