I have been running staight pipes for a while and I like the volume I get out of them. First I had just the the connector pipe after the y pipe and that was ok. But I figured I should have it ran farther back. So i went in and had them run 2.5" back to about 12" of 3" for the turndown, dumped in front of the axle. The 3" made the exhaust have a deeper throatier tone but there is less raspy sound and rumble. I thought this is what I wanted, but after driving with it, I can see its really not. I think I will try cutting the 3" off and see how the 2.5" exit sounds. But I am looking for any other ideas.

What I want is more raspy sound and more rumble. On Josiah's youtube NorCal video I like the way his sounds.

What do you guys think about these ideas:

1) Loose the unneeded cats
2) Loose the 3" turndown
3) Baffled (flowmaster or IMCO) muffler, but I want to keep same straight pipe volume level
4) Get the exit farther back, could the resonance of sound waves from ground the truck bed be covering up the rumble and rasp
5) Headers? My understanding is that no one has found any headers for these trucks that are really worth it.
6) True Duals? Unbalanced exhaust give me more of this sound I am after?

I am going to keep after this till I get it right. Thanks for any input and ideas.

 

That sounds like the same thing that I have been looking to get out of my truck. Although I have yet to try any different combos other than my original set-up, 3" from the Y back to a IMOC (now Cherry bomb) pro series then 3" out the stock location with a 4" X12" polished SS tip.

There is a kid in town here that has a 04+ STX that is running just 2 cats and then just pipe after the factory Y pipe. It is alsomost exactly the sound that I am looking for, but I think that it would be too loud for me when I am towing.

 

I did a how-to on installing Corsa's kit on my truck last year. I even included some videos to show what it sounded like:



http://www.truckblog.com/video/corsa_exhaust_f150

 

Yea, I cut of the 3" tip/turndown last night. Now is stock cats and Y-pipe, with that connector pipe, and about 3ft of 2.5". Its the sound I want. What I found out is that the 3" tip producing that lower tone, eliminated some of the higher tones. But those higher tones give some of the raspy/rumbly quality, kinda that race car sound. So I going to stick with using 2.5" straight pipes for my exhaust on my truck for now on.

I guess it could get a little old when towing, but I don't tow often and with my tires and radio and all that, a little exhaust is no big deal to me. I would say to test it out. Take everything off, and just run that connector pipe after the y-pipe and see how you like that. That is 2.5" I believe, If you like it then you can just have some 2.5" pipe put in for however you want your exhaust and I don't think the extra pipe should change the sound much.

One thing I am also thinking is that using the 2.5" for the single straight pipe is good. Most "charts" and people say that you should use 3" for a 300hp vehicle but I think that stat is for a vehicle running a muffler. So without a vehicle the 2.5" might help make up some of the backpressure lost. If not, oh well, I decided I am doing my exhaust for sound. If I lose a little performance with it, then I am ok with that. I tried the magnaflow "performance" route. Not even close to the "pissed off" truck sound I want.