I just installed the Flowmaster Force II kit yesterday on my 98. I lowered the spare tire to give myself more room to work. Once I was done, I went to put the tire back up and it won't fit between my hitch and the pipes in the rear. I have an aftermarket hitch, and it looks like it is pushing the tire back slightly so that it hits on the pipes in the back (next to the axle). Does anyone else have this problem?

Also, an unrelated question....I've done exhaust work before, and I'm familiar with the "break-in" smell. You know, the mixture of the insides of the muffler burning up, oil from your hands and whatever grease/oil they used when the cut the pipes and all. In my experience, it's always gone away within 30 miles of driving. I'm still getting the smell today even though I've probably put about 150 miles on it since yesterday. Anyone with this kit remember how long it took for the smell to go away? I checked to see if any of the pipes were touching anything and possibly burning it, and I didn't see anything. It was dark, so I'll check again in the morning, but I'm positive I made sure there was plenty of clearance along the whole length of the pipes when I installed the kit.

Thanks.

 

this seems to be a common problem with the pre fabbed kits, you might try taking it to a muffler shop and see if they can tweak the pipes to clear everything, but I'm sure they are gonna try to get you to have them replace all the pipes...


my flowmaster didn't smell much at all so I can't help you with that except to tell you to check everything again for pipes rubbing on something, heat shields, painted surfaces, etc...

 

Thanks. At this point I've already put more money into the exhaust than I wanted to (bought a used kit for $100 that was hacked up so bad it was unusable, then spent $380 on a new kit, then got a ticket the day my new kit showed up at my door for having no exhaust).

I think I'll just learn to live with it.

Also, with the smell, I took it on a 200 mile round trip out to western pennsylvania last night to pick up my new tool box, and the smell seems to be gone. I guess it was the muffler breaking in, because it also sounds a lot louder too.

 

I also installed the Flowmaster Force II exhaust on my 97' F-150. I have a factory hitch. I left everything in place when installing the exhaust system and had to make a few adjustments before tightning everything down. To start with it appeared there would ba a clearance issue with the spare but after some careful spacing it all tightened & everything cleared, actually nicely and no knocks at all. I also at one time worked in a muffler shop that built custom exhaust from pocket rockets to monster mudders. I do understand your frustration and I would look seriously at the after market hitch. It could be the model of the hitch [to big] or the position it's mounted in may be off some.