well as the title says, im desiring to simplify my exhaust from the stock setup but once or twice read that altering the truck from the factory setup can sometimes really affect our ford trucks performance. however i do not remember if that was on the intake end of it or the exhaust end of it.

what id like to do is just get some maggie cats that come into an X pipe and come back out to a rear exit on the truck. so smaller cats, dont even need to be the hi flo's unless they do help dramatically but as ive learned from the years exhaust is more about sound then performance. the X pipe as stated, and straight piped out the back.

my biggest concern is if i do this without having a tuner with a custom tune for that kind of air flow, will i see a decrease in performance or loss of mpg's per say or will it be fine and over time the computer will learn the new setup on its own. id just hate to spend the cash to do the exhaust then have it backfire and have negative effects on my truck. hope someone can help in my decision to do this or not. thanks all.

 

I have an aftermarket intake, and a true dual flowmaster super 44 exhaust, and i saw nothing but positive performance... and better MPG. I also have no tune... yet.
as for the cats, mine are still stock until i can get the money for some maggie high flows.

 

ok thanks n1kko. i dont have much for an intake. just the gotts mod and my stock air box and filter. im definately going to get rid of the stock cats. they are enormous. much rather prefer some smaller compact style like a maggie hi flow if it performs much better than a normal magge replacement cat.

 

The OEM software system is designed to adjust the fuel mixture up to 10%.......that’s more than enough to handle any back pressure reduction...which is actually slight since the CATS have the greatest restriction when looking at the oem system as a whole...since they or similiar aftermarket units will remain in place, aside from the ECM (minor) adjusting for the next 50 miles or so, the fuel mixture will stay the same regardless and with the slight increased flow/reduced exhaust restriction, you could see a slight increase in MPG/performance but there will be no loss.

 

Maggie high flows... Dear God... not much to say except no exhaust system is complete without them. A nice deep rumble at a barely open throttle, and the roar of a lion at WOT. Plus, I notice a drop in idle RPM's, and I seem to have a better takeoff than I did before I put them on.

 

when designing your exhaust system calculate the amount of backpressure you need to not be affected negatively