Ok i have to say being worried its to loud when you pick up a chick is funny when you consider the decibel level of most young males stereo's. If it helps at all i have a 350 with duel series 40 flowmasters in a Z28 with no cats and you can chat with ease.

 

ok that vid darren showed you was nothing but manifolds, hi flow cats, X pipe, and pipe straight back. Im gonna go with yes its loud in the cab seein as mines loud in the cab and i have mufflers, H pipes and X pipes are for true dual pipes. They help the exhaust flow into both mufflers evenly and makes the exhaust flow better, they make the truck idle quieter too, as far as pickin up chicks, with my exhaust i have no problem with that long as i have the windows up

 

Very well put man Gotta get an X or H for proper scavaging and velocity for exhaust or else you may notice a low end torque loss. Since the left exhaust is guided oer to the right, thats alot longer exhaust, therefor, unbalanced.

 

i was thinking of that too but would be cheaper to just add high flow cats x pipe and straight to tips.

 

yea thats good, dont do no cats tho man believe me been there done that

 

i think im gonna do that and if its too loud always can add the stock cats back ya or add a mufflers.
oh wat size piping do u know is that just the stock one

 

yea, im gonna tell you right now, thats gonna be loud and dont add stock cats after you already put hi flow converters on it, you can always do a flowmaster or glasspack or magnaflow or something, and im gonna guess thats 2.5" piping

 

ill throw my 2 cents in here..

u basically understand the whole *true duals* setup which is def the way to go. you dont really want to go with 2'' tubing unless u wanna gain low end and suffer top end so stay with 2.25 or 2.5.. dont go any bigger unless ur pushing enough horses..with a smaller exhaust ull increase velocity which is good for low end but wont have the optimum flow which is good for top end. u want to try to find that balance unless ur looking for one or the other.. starting at the top, if u wanna stay with stock manifolds, fine, next r the cats.. HF's r def the way to go and magnaflow is the most respected out there but others like to cut the rear 2 cats off bc the fronts kinda work like HF's too... next u need a transition, either x, y, or h pipe.. for true duals or di/do(single muffler), an x pipe is best.. if u r looking to use 1 muffler for si/so or even dual out then a y pipe is needed. after your transition u need to think about a muffler or mufflers.. the most used r magnaflow and flowmaster.. i look at them like this: flowmaster concentrates on its sound quality(rumble) more than performance/gains and magnaflow for performance/gains(growl) rather than sound but dont get me wrong, flowmaster does just fine with performance and magnaflow does just fine with sound, i like them both.. something with a short case (ie- maggie 11 or 14'') will give u the best performance and a louder sound (not positive on the louder sound part since muflers r diff)... if ur looking for a muffler that will give u the rumble u want but keep the interior resonance low, my reccomendation would be te flowmaster 50 series delta flow.. i had that muffler and loved it.. if u want a louder rumble, the 44 and 40 series are great (the newest made by flowmaster).. if u want less rumble, more growl, more performance then magnaflow is great.. for true duals, id say the 11'' 4x9'' mufflers r best since there the smallest..check out their websites to get more info on them all. then after muffler u have ur exiting position and tips.. for the 97-03 F150's i like angled down behind rear wheels or dual split rear and for 04 and up i like either in front of rear tire or duals angled down behind the rear wheels.. as far as tips go, choose what u like, length and cut but i wouldnt go with anything less than 4'' bc i think 3'' looks to small.. i think i got everything i wanted to say.. im not an expert on exhaust but ive done my reasearch which helps alot and got great help when i was in ur shoes.. to my friends here, feel free to correct me on anything i posted.. if u need further help just ask.. TIM

 

yea itll be loud with no muffler and just HF's.. u might even get the loud popping sound (could be wrong) that will get annoying... the HF cats are good so dont mess with them... if u dont like ur exhaust, i would only change it by adding the mufflers.. and he has 2.25'' tubing in the vid

 

oh, since u have a 97 and prolly have ur facotry o2 sensors, do urself a favor and get new ones when u do ur exhaust.. somtimes people will get a CEL due to a *faulty* o2 right after they put their old ones back in so u can prevent that, save urself some aggrivation and labor(money) by replacing them, along with gaining between 1-3 mpg.. more if ur lucky

 

Sweet. 2.25" duals no X or H crossover.

 

just out of curiosity, dont straights and flowmasters hurt torque? and do magnaflows actually help performance?

i've got a magnaflow 14" long 4"x9" oval si/so using the factory pipes. it sounds pretty good(to me). i wanted something that would be nice and loud when i step on it, but not so loud it would wake up the neighbors if i come home late. i think true duals w/ mufflers or si/do would be plenty loud. but its your call. ohh, and when i roll up the windows, i can barely hear it.

and i have the 4.6l

 

in some cases, yes, Flowmaster has hurt performance, but there have been gains... it all depends on the setup, muffler, and car i think.. for our trucks, i think it has a small impact on our trucks.. like i say all the time, if u want a nice rumble but dont mind sacrificing minor power, Flowmaster is good.. im aware of the pros ad cons and i like their products.

Maggies have more of a straight through technology, not the chambered structure Flowmaster has.. its all about air flow. Flowmaster plays with the air flow to make quality sound.. Magnaflow makes good sound, dont get me wrong.. i tend to think of Flowmaster as *rumble* and Magnaflow as *growl*... and yes, Magnaflow has helped performance, and same with Flowmaster

as far as ur muffler.. stay with it, just do the rest of your exhaust. if u go with true duals trust me, it will be loud enough, maybe more than u think.. if u need some help, pm me.. TIM

 

Sometimes, The chambers and baffle plates in the chambers of Flowmaster mufflers kill the flow restricting your low end performance, its mildly good for high end though. Straights perform better than Flowmasters due to their not restricted. I had true dualed Super 44s on my last truck, mileage dropped .4 mpg after exhaust, thats not too bad considering 3" true duals on a gas 6.0L Chevy, though it was programmed for that thick exhaust. Best off with the Magnaflows, I love mine, but its not loud enough for me, looking forward to having my rear cats chopped out asap!