I'm driving an '04 F150 2WD Lariat (so 5.4 engine). From what I hear, it has dual catalytic converters? My main goal is to getter better MPG, but I a little growl from the truck. Not much, just enough so that you know it's custom. I want dual pipes coming out the back. If I have dual cats (how do I know?), then dual mufflers is a must right? I've seen people talking about pipe size, 2.5 inch, 3 inch, etc. What do I need?

I just got a deal on a 3 month old MAC cold air intake for $100. Guess I can't go wrong there, assuming it's really only 3 months old!

I also just bought a Superchips Flashpaq tuner, but I haven't actually paid for it yet. Is this decent?

Looking for some advice. I'm new to all this stuff. Thanks!

 

You have 4 cats. You can get a cat-back exhaust and it'll still sound good, but if you want to do cat work your can remove the rears and put in pipe to delete them ( not legal ) and gain sound, or remove the rears for hi-flow converters ( legal ).

Your exhaust is 2.5"

Welcome to the Ford truck scene

 

Oh, one thing I forgot is that even though I'm in CA, my truck is registered in Alaska. I don't have to do smog on it. I'm planning on letting a shop do the work. I don't work on cars. I could, I just don't.

I don't want to cut out the cats. I just want a high flow muffler (even though the stock ones are high flow I understand?). I'm really looking for a specific muffler recommendation. Tell me what to get and I will!

Some pics of my truck here (it's all stock so it's pretty boring):

http://nerbonne.net/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=1743

http://nerbonne.net/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=487

 

Well in California you cannot modify your cats. These OEM mufflers dont flow good at all. Swaping out to a straight through muffler will be great.

 

Yeah, but it's not registered in CA. Doesn't matter cuz I'm not touching the cats anyways. What about this cat back exhaust. Can you explain that?

 

Many exhaust manufacturers offer cat-backs in farious configurations for these trucks. First off, what would you like? Loud our calm & deep? Dual tailpipes? If so where do you want them exiting and what style tips?

 

For your tuner, it's good. Not the best, IMO. VMPTuning.com is good but just whatever you want. Best advice would be to do that cat work, but as Darren said. What do you want out of it?

 

If you truck isn't registered in CA then you don't have to do jack for them of course an installed in CA won't do any emissions stuff like that on your truck probably since I would assume it's illegal to perform that task simply because you live there. I thought 05+ had 2 cats? Someone said my 05 had two but I didn't check when I installed my true dual exhuast but dang thing sure is louder than most.

 

2004 - 2005 have 4 cats, and later model assembled 2005s - 2009s have 2 cats. The 2 cat systems are louder obviously than the 4. Theres a good chance you have 2. Either crawl under and look, or look at your build code in your doorjam and if it was assembled in 2005 & not 2004 you can assume it has the 2 cats.