Thank you very much, that will be the one then!

 

That pretty well describes what I have now, except my truck already had a Flowmaster 3" catback when I bought it. Just took it for a first drive and its much louder than I want at cruising speed though, so I'll be looking to either change the muffler/catback or make other changes to alter the resonant frequency...

 

Okay, first, it doesn't matter to me what headers you use - OBX = stainless. Pacesetters are metal and a little longer than the OBX .

I guess in some cases Pace Setters cracked at the flange and OBX headers have cracked at the welds. If you have the cash , yea get the Dyna techs, Dynamax or Kooks..

If you go with the cheaper brands, and if by chance one does crack, it will happen down by the collector which is a fairly easy fix, if you have access to a welder or having a muffler shop repair it wouldn't be that big of deal.

Chances are, they won't break anyway and I've never seen or heard of a Pacesetter rusting through.


I looked @ Troyers site and there is an F150 kit like the Expy kit now. But, what do want and like?

I suggest sticking with cats - High flow cats (2) or just your main stock cat and off the forward cats. High Flows aren't really needed IMO - If you compare them to your stock rears , you will see why - Their about the same. You can save some cash there.

If you want to save more cash - forget the cat back. Keep you mid pipe a single 2.5 into a SI muffler. In fact keep it 2.5 everywhere is best for you. You need a good muffler for performance - Magnaflow, Borla, Gibson just to name a few.

I you like duals out the back - Go with a dual out muffler. Personally , I would stick with a single out.

When considering a good set up for a light mod - stock motor, you don't really need all the fancy stuff to get the most from an exhaust system IMO.

A damn good welder is a necessity though. Spend that money you saved for a dyno tune - Get her dialed in right after your install. That's what makes everything above, worth while.

Good Luck

 

opt 3 but use 2.5in tubing is about as large as you can go with out losing torque i also replaced the four stock cats with two maggy high flows

 

Well here's my setup, i love the sound and only ran me $160. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PExYwCnbNMg

 

That does sound good..

 

What about JBA catforwards? On their website they made over 30hp to the wheels with a full exhaust using their stuff. Thats pretty impressive, yet I dont see them as being an option in this forum and it makes me wonder if people are having bad luck with them. I have pretty good pricing through JBA and I am leaning in that direction, but again, what is everyone else saying? Thanks a bunch...


http://www.jbaheaders.com/assets/articles/st1205.pdf

 

Actuall, I just seen them tested in a magazine recently and not the magazine in your link. They didn't get anywhere near 30 horsepower though. If I remember right, it got somewhere between 10 and 15 horsepower. I imagine even with a full cat back system though you might still only see another 10 or so horsepower at it's peak. Maybe their numbers are at the flywheel? The article doesn't say.

General concensus is that shorties give you 0 hp and 0 lb-tq. Maybe the right shorties make power though. You could always be the guinea pig amd get a before and after dyno.

 

Right on the front of the 1st page in big lettering - "We put 30 more ponies to the pavement with JBA headers and Bassani exhaust" - also on the last page in the side box about the predator tune, it states that the power was gained at the rear wheels (and there's a pic of the truck on a RW dyno ) You mention an article about gaining only about 10-15hp then say "with a full cat back system though you might still only see another 10 or so"...hey thats right in line with what my article gained. I'll take it... but I think I may wait and see what else I have as options

 

30hp from shorties... haha

 

I was looking for somethig that specifically said at the rear wheels not to the pavement. Regardless, I wasn't looking at the pictures, only reading the article, so I did miss that small bit where they mentioned it as at the rear wheels. My mistake. Thanks for pointing that out. I'll need to go find that magazine with the article I was reading. I don't like to generalize or guess at what I thought something was. People tend to just jump on whatever numbers they see and run with them and I don't want to be the cause of that. Only thing I find weird is that the article doesn't have a dyno graph. Most articles that state dyno numbers show a graph. I'm not saying they're lying. It's just unusual.

 

Ok. I found it. It's in the Spring/Summer 2008 Performance Products catalog. They tested what they call the Total JBA Package which includes their Cat4Ward headers, their Evo1 Exhaust and their Powercables. They got peak torque gains of 13.4 and peak horsepower numbers of 14. To be fair, this was on a 2003 Chevy Silverado 1500 5.3L 2WD. But lets be real, the numbers aren't going to vary that much between the two vehicles. And actually, the show the dyno graph as well and if anyone cares, the new torque line is very inconsistant. It doesn't appear that they adjusted the speed limiter though either. So take it for what it's worth.

 

Thanks for the info, and if I remember correctly, I think I saw a pic of the factory manifolds for Ford, Chevy, and Nissan and the Ford's looked the worst (i.e most restrictive), maybe thats why the Chevy's don't gain as much with exhaust but have a (much) better top end stock. I'll prob do long tubs now though...thanks again

 

I know what it's like trying to research something to get what you want the first time so you don't regret anything and have to do it again. I actually have a set of Edelbrock Ceramic coated stainless shorties sitting in the dining room because I decided to go with long tubes a little too late. I see what you're saying about the stock manifolds. Fords stock manifolds suck so much that when you swap out for some headers, the gain is more drastic than a vehicle that is already flowing decent.

 

I posted a vid clip of my headers and exhaust in another thread: Check it out!

Something else to give you an idea.