Does the stock catback exhaust systems on the Lightnings, contain some sort of crossover pipe internally in the muffler? If not, how does it go about the scavenging process with unequal length pipes?

Assuming that there is no crossover, is it not possible to swap out catbacks, without the addition of a crossover intermediate pipe?

I know in the 4.6L Mustang world, once you start talking about large amounts of boost, crossover pipes are not needed. There is no scavenging needed on forced induction. But does that apply here in the roots style 5.4??

I am looking at changing catbacks on my 2002, simply for sound reasons. But I will not do the swap at the risk of Losing performance. Gains are not expected, but losses are unacceptable.

I am looking at the MAC and Borla kits. I have heard sound files of them, and they appear to be the subtle yet obvious tonal change that I am looking for.

Can anyone clear this up for me???
joe

 

Thunder I believe the same to apply with the Lightning as the 4.6 an non poweradded vehicle will notice a loss in torque with the X and less of a loss with the H pipe setup, but when a Poweradder is put on the X will make substantial power. there was a post on here a while back of someone who installed 2 Flowmasters on his L and lost alot of power, first off he didn't use an X or any type of crossover , and second the flowmasters do not flow good at all , 257.73 C.F.M and the Dynomax 315 CFM and the MAC at 361 CFM. sorry I do not have the numbers on the Magnaflow, and Bassani's . the mufflers with internal X's seem to work very well, the Magnaflow and MAC FLowpath have internal x's. The Bassani kit relies on the x before the mufflers , mainly because it is 2 mufflers . I feel with the current cat and other smaog equipment you will see good gains either way with a proper x or h crossover ( balance ) setup.

 

Ok, let me ask you this...

Does the MAC Big Flow catback contain the internal crossover, or is the Flowpath series the only ones that do? I am persistent on this because way too much money was spent on exhaust for the GT, and I will not do this twice on the L.

So, does the MAC Big Flow catback, for the 99-02 L's, contain the internal crossover that we are speaking about. If so, thats the kit I want to go with.

Thanks for your help, I really hate Muffler and Gear posts, but need to get some answers.

joe

 

thunder the Flowpath is the MAC muffler , and yes it does have the internal x. and to answer you question earlier . I believe most mufflers including stock that are dual inlet have some typ of internal scavenging setup rather it is an X or someother way , I would believe the stock Lightning to be true also

 

The Stock muffler has a common chamber in the back which is the same as a crossover.

 

Chuck,
Thanks thats what I thought , but without a stock muffler here it was hard to say for sure