hi all, I recently installed a flowmaster 10 series on my truck, and it's not as loud as I hoped. Right now its got a stock cat into a 3in pip in the muffler, then dual 2.5in tips that dump out side by side just in front of the rear tire on the passenger side. The cat on here is pretty damn big and when I ran is with no muffler and only the cat it wasn't that loud. Would putting on a after market free flowing cat on it make it louder? Also what are the advantages and dis advantages of even having a cat? Im going to find out if the truck needs to get air cared and if not I think Im going to take the cat off completely. On the other hand, if the truck does need to get air cared, how can I bypass it, I hear raising the GVW works, but how do I do that, and how do I know if my vehicle is applicable?

thanks for the help,

Jared

 

what state are you in? it would be louder without the cat, especially if its the factory cat. if you live in a state that doesnt do emission tests on 23 year old videos, then removing it will only help your performance and get you toward your "louder" goals.

hi flow cats are cheap, will pass emissions, and have little if any adverse effect on performance. it'll sound a little better, but it wont be as loud as if it were deleted altogether.

back before hi flow cats were abundant, i equipped my cat with fittings that matched a "delete pipe" that i incorporated into my exhaust using band clamps, and at emission time it wouldnt take long to swap it out. in the age of inexpensive non-power robbing hi flow cats, the only reason not to run them is for sound or for ease sake in the exhaust sytem.

 

Im from vancouver BC Canada, and ya im pretty sure it's the stock cat so a high flow cat is something I will defiantely look into, hopefully I can bypass air care and just take off the cat completely.

thanks for the help,
jared

 

I would check to see if your area doesn't have to pass emissions. Where I am I don't have to and my 88 F150 has no cats into a cheap muffler currently. Not to loud as far as I can tell but I haven't had it running yet (cranking it over sounds louder then stock). A flowmaster usually doesn't get very loud in my opinion usually you will need a glasspack or similar with no cats for a nice loud sound.

We use to have a 93 F250 4x4 with the exact same exhaust set up (routing wise) with just dual thrush tubes no cat. To me it was the best sounding exhaust yet. It sounded like a beast and was still not so loud the cops would harass you all the time. I plan on doing similar set up on my 88 F150.
Trav

 

Ya I was originally going to do true duals with glass packs but my truck is converted to propane so it has 4 tanks in total so I figured duals would be too much of a process because of all the stuff that I would have to navigate around. I will see if I need to get it air cared, if not the cat is coming off. If i do have to get it air cared ill try and raise the GVW so bypass it then take the cat off. And if there's no way for me to avoid it ill just buy a free flowing cat from magnaflow or something.

Jared

 

cool I have no idea on propane trucks so I hope you get it figured out.
Trav

 

ok so I looked into it, and it turns out the truck was registered as commercial, and the GVW is 5300 which means no air care!!! One less thing for me too worry about, Ill have to get my hands on a Y pipe, and then the cats coming off.

 

long tubes. . .

 

In the last 4 months I have had Flowmaster Super 44's on an F150 with the converter, and my new truck an F250 with glasspack cherrybomb exhaust and I can tell you the glasspack with the converter on is at least twice as loud if not more than the flowmaster.

 

When I took off my stock muffler I ran it with straight pipes with the cat and it was still really quiet, so im assuming the cat is making it much quieter, so hopefully when I take it off I see a big difference in the sound level.

 

The cat makes the difference. My truck went from really quiet to really loud when I put in my new exhaust that had a high flow cat.

 

Another vote for long tubes. Nothing sounds as good as a healthy V8 breathing through a set of long tubes.

 

3rd vote! No point in noise with out the extra grunt they add...

 

I vote for headers. I have Hedman mids and they're sweet! Nice, aggressive note

 

Im no expert on this stuff... but I'm having a hard time findings headers that fit a 7.5L big block, any suggestions?