I've got dual side exit on my 97 and although the passenger rear wheel did tend get a bit dirtier than the other's it wasn't that big a deal (I had aftermarket aluminum wheels before by the way and now have chromed wheels.) I think the problem really only affected the stock wheels more than aftermarket wheels. Also it does tend to get cold here in winter but no where near as cold as Indiana. People tend to think becasue we live in Calif. that the weather is always sunny well up here in the "REAL" Calif NORTHERN it gets cold down into the 30's on many days during the winter. Which by the way I think it was last week we had some cold spells into the low 30's.

Richard D.

While your here check out my gallery:
https://www.f150online.com/galleries....cfm?gnum=2479

 

Maybe one or two days a year the temp. goes below 40 degrees F. The last time we got snow was in 1984 and that was only for 30 minutes. Most of the time the temp fluctuates between 49-76 degrees. Pretty mild except for the FOG!!! Good point about the corrosive nature of the exhuast gasses. My father has a 97 Lariat that has the side exit...he has 177,000 mi. on his ride with the stock system and no probs. Don't the Light. and Harleys have side exit? Just wanted to know if there was any benifit to having less piping from the muffler to the tips, I guess. I have the SI/DO Flowmaster that exits straight back. I was considering a SS Magnaflow, but there are many mufflers. Any suggestions?

RIGHT ON Y'ALL

 

Well we had more than two days in the 30's here in Suisun this year and can tell you that much for sure heck there was one strecth where it got down into the 30's for almosta week straight.

Richard D.

 

When I bought my'97 new I was told that the shorter pipe would give about five extra hp---I used to do this kind of thing in my hot rod days---don't know about the hp but it sure sounded better

 

Richard, your more inland than I. You also get into the 90's and 100's in the summer, we in SF only get into the 80 and 90 (usually August)seldom. Even if we reach this mark, the evening fog comes to the rescue especially in the evenings or at least an off shore breeze. I gotta give it to you guys inland! I couldn't make it through one summer!

As for the shorter exhaust (97's), I think that was a selling feature that the sales rep. mentioned to a lot of the customers. My father was told teh same thing when he bought his Lariat. i wonder if it is true...less pipe=less restriction.?.

 

Yeah and here in Suisun the dang wind blows non stop becasue of that big hole you guys have over there which if memory serves me correctly has a huge red spanning thing going across it. LOL

I know you folks over in the city have differant weather than us talk about the whole micro climate thing. I can leave here on a day when it is 100* and drive towards you and about every 20 miles or so the temp drops about 10* As for summer time that is what my boat is for might get to go to the lake next week woohoo!!

Richard D.

WHILE YOUR HERE CHECK OUT MY GALLERY:
https://www.f150online.com/galleries....cfm?gnum=2479

 

While it may have been know to happen ( haven't seen one myself ) that the pass side rear wheel might get green, stop and think about what might cause this to happen.

L and HD both have the xhst dump in that spot.
L and HD owners wash their truck on a regular basis.
L and HD trucks wheels don't have the problem ??

I run my stock wheels in the winter, and have not had a wheel turn green in ~ 10,000 miles ( ~ 45% of the millage on the truck ), but then again I wash my truck on a regualr basis.
This is the stock wheel with the plastic chrome hub cap.

The wheel sits in the same position for the whole time that it is on ( rotate them when I remount then for the next winter ) for the cold temps.

Maybe the key to not having the plastic chrome cap not turn green is to wash the truck. ??

Just my personal experience with the dump in front of the rear wheel.

 

I don't think the washing thing is it because I wash my truck every three days. I DO know that I'm going to have my new exhaust after the tire. I wish some Ford engineer would look at this thread and tell us the REAL reason.

 

Do you have somewhat of a large male dog? J/K

I think the caps are a chrome coated plastic...the only reason why i say this is because I used some chrome polish and it worked!!!

 

Male dog? Nahhhh---we got a little rat---11" hi, 22# and a girl
I tried polish too to no avail----next I'm going to go look for some of that fake chrome spray paint. Just an experiment because those wheels are sitting in my garage now that I have new wheels. Trying to decide if I want to run some different tires in the summer mounted on the old wheels but I gotta get a lot of other goodies first.

 

Mine is green also but it's the painted portion that turned green, the chrome is fine. I now have new wheels and tires so hopefully it won't be a probelm.

I would prefer SI/DO behind the wheel but I'll have to wait a while.

ks