Deer_Hunter

Hello all,

I just bought an F-150 with a 302 in it. It has 105,000 miles for it and is in excellent shape. I have a friend who has some 2.5" pipe laying around and wanted to bend a custom exhaust for me (he has a pipe bender). I have High-Flow Cats for it but no mufflers. My dad tells me i wont have enough backpressure without the mufflers, and I'll burn up my valves. I know of several people that have run their trucks without mufflers for 30,000+ miles and not have any problems. Are Mufflers really necasary? I know its not legal but i live in a farm town, and no-one cares. Any Comments would be appreciated!

Torcher

ive got stock cattilitics and no mufflers. in fact my exhaust is cut off right infront of where the mufflers were. ive been running it for around 50k and no problems with smoking..burnt valves or the like has happened to me. maybe the stock cat's have enough backpressure. i live in a small town as well and no one has ever said anything about my truck being loud or anything of the sort. so i dont see where you will have a problem. but if you think you will...just go to a junk yard. they'll cut off a set of flowmasters for real cheap.

Deer_Hunter

Thanks for the info! Being 17, i dont expect to have the truck too long, so 50,000 or so will be more than enough. I'll just do the same thing you did Torcher, and not even bother with installing the High-Flow Cats. How does your setup sound?

Torcher

actually its not loud. i mean you probably wont be able to sneak out of the house at 2 in the morning but...you wont get noise pollution tickets for your exhaust being to loud. you may not even notice that big of a difference. my muffler had a few holes in it when i cut it off, and they gave it a real airy sound. but when i cut it off it took out the airy-ness of the sound but didnt get much louder. but it sounds pretty good.

Deer_Hunter

Thanks again Torcher. I have been doing a fair amount of research, and have come to a conclusion that Fuel-Injected V-8's do not require much in the way of back-pressure, that less is better for top-end horsepower. I will loose a little torque, but im not worried about that. My question now is, can i run striaght pipes right out of the manifold, with no mufflers or cats? I probably answered my own question, but would just like to hear it from another person. Thanks!

Torcher

can you...sure you can!...its just that i wouldnt recommend it. i think if you run straight off the manifold you should get a muffler, flowmaster, magnaflow, etc. just because you need some backpressure. and not having any can mess it up. but like you said, you wont have the truck very long.

Deer_Hunter

Hey Torcher, thanks alot for your help, i just cut the pipe with a Sawzall (spelling?) after the two Cats, shes not overly loud, but i have not yet run the pipe out yet, it is a rather nice sound though. It pops when i decelerate, which i think is kind of cool. Thanks again for your help!

Torcher

thanks for your reply.i was wondering how loud it would be without the catalytics so i think what ill do is cut my cat's off and put flowmasters. just for the perfect sound. and you said you've only got 105K?! im sitting on almost 340K
and mine's an '88!!! yours must be in almost mint condition! good luck!

Deer_Hunter

Torcher, post a reply when you cut the cats off, if I were you, id cut one off at a time, just to see what it sounds like! Yeah, my truck is in fairly mint condition. I worked on a farm most of my life, for an old couple. I have always admired the truck, and when the old man died, the lady sold me the truck for one hell of a deal. I think i might have to take back that statement about not having the truck for very long, lol! It came with brand new 33" BF Goodrich All Terrains and a camo seat cover. Cant beat that for $500.

Stangas

Mate... i installed a complete extractors, twin system 2" exhaust, and only installed 2 mufflers and didnt bother with the cats..

again not legal.. but i find it real good.. got a sprint car howl about it when revvin