I have an 06 Lariat 5.4 3v. I have had two of these trucks, and one I put the pipes coming straight out of the back with 3.5" rolled lip tips and it sounded great, very deep, throaty sound. I now have the same muffler (flowmaster sido) but have the tips 45'ed out behind the rear wheel with plain 2.5" slash cut tips and it does not sound near as good, kind of weak and has a humming sound to it. Thery were installed two different shops but the same muffler was used for both. So my question is can the location and style of the tips make that much difference in the sound?

 

Yes very. Your tips are too damn small for one, minimum of 3.5" does the job at helping it sound better. For side exit I prefer 4" tips. 45'd behind the tires sounds louder than straight out the back too because you can hear it in cab better, and the sound doesn't go behind you, it goes to the sides more so everyone will hear it.

Upgrade to 4" tips and you should be happy. Also are your tailpipes on this truck mandrel bent? and how thick are they?

 

That's what I thought, when I saw the tips I thought they would be too small and I asked the guy at the shop and he said thats what most people get. I was also considering cutting the pipes off where they make the turn to exit the side and having them raised up towards the bed a little and putting some turn down tips (at least 3.5") and keeping the exhaust hidden except for the edge of the tips exposed at the base of the quarter panel. What do you think?

 

If thats your style thats cool. I personally would prefer exposed tips. Im going with tips very similar to my Chevy's tips ( 4" side exit ). The way tips change the tone is when small pipe meets larger pipe, a deeper more metallic sound is generated and it sounds great. So I dont know what he was thinking giving you 2.5".

 

Darren I mis informed you of my existing tip diameter, they are a 3.5" slash cut 45'ed behind the rear wheels, they just seemed smaller to me...Anyhow I am still getting a weird humming, kind of irritating higher pitched sound from the exhaust when accelerating that I did not get when I had the rolled edge tips coming straight out of the back. Do you think there could be something wrong with the muffler...I do not remember that noise when I first put it on 2 years ago. It seems to sound the same when idling and I am outside of the truck and when I take off from a dead stop and really get on it, it sounds fine. It is more at highway speeds when I speed up to pass someone or on normal acceleration from a light not too much gas it seems to have that sound.

 

Sounds to me like you could have a leak. I would crawl under and check all the metal and look for signs of rusting through or holes in your muffler, pipes, cats, or whatever.

 

That's what I was thinking...but wasn't sure if the symptoms I was having would be caused by that or not. Thanks!!

 

A humming or whistling noise is a leak. I had to go back to the muffler shop 3 times to have them fix mine right due to poor welds. I had the newby install my system, lucky me. After 2 years it is probably a small rust hole somewhere like Boxerguy said.

 

Here's how I did my tips (3.5").

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