Is it just me or do you think it looks a little under engineered? It looks a bit goofy from pretty much any angle. The black paint doesn't really hide it so well. My only real exterior gripe so far.

 

I dont like the look either. If you take a good look you'll see that the pipe going to the resonator is surprisingly large and in it's present form, the resonator is tucked up a high as it will go. I've thought about converting to dual exhaust similar to the Explorer if possible, or to a pre-2015 side exit.

 

Has anyone simply removed the resonator? I am thinking about doing this myself, but I am chicken I guess.

 

The Expy is a luxury vehicle for a lot of its buyer demographic. I just noted an older V8 Lincoln Navigator that took the exhaust straight out the rear (single pipe) and had a smaller cylindrical resonator like maybe 6" diameter.

I know the Ecoboost F150's in the upper trim levels pipe in fake V8 engine noise thru the radio and if this system exists on the Expy, Ford probably wanted to filter out the V6 sound and vibration as much as possible so you could hear a nice (but fake) V8 sound out of the radio.

I actually believe that Tahoes and Yukons are popular in part because GM makes their V8 trucks sound really good...

Removing the new model resonators would be no problem but I wouldn't want to introduce more noise (possibly clashing with the fake V8 sound). And trucks have always had stuff sticking out underneath so I'm not visually bothered by the exhaust system as is. It does look like they could have extended the rear bumper lower on the sides to cover some of the resonator.

George

 

Seriously? Fake V8 sound through the radio? That's just stupid.. lol..

 

I think so too, but Ford believe that buyers want a V8 sound...so they add soundproofing to the truck to mask V6 noise and replace it with fake V8 noise.

2015 Ford F-150 Fakes V8 Engine Noise in V6 Trucks

 

That's just the silliest thing I've ever heard. haha. I certainly hope they have an option of turning that sillyness off. They should spend time making the V6 sound awesome rather than playing some faking soundtrack on the stereo. A V6 can certainly sound great if you want it to.

 

Sorry for the thread revival, but i was wondering if anyone else has done this. I just got a 2017 and was thinking about having a shop remove the resonator and re-route the tailpipe out the side.

 

I am not certain that my comments are correct or relevant, however, I will make them anyway and I apologize now if I offend anyone. The configuration of the exhaust system may have something to do with all the difficulties Ford has had with carbon monoxide. This is actually not a new issue. At least as far back as 1989, ambulances had CO levels above acceptable levels. See http://rvtechstop.com/resources/Articles/co_ok.pdf for more info.
To be cautious, I would want to be sure that I did not compromise the exhaust system by making my own modifications. At a minimum, I would likely use a CO monitor for a while to confirm modifications did not cause an elevation in CO.
Ed

 

ed-g35 - thanks for your input. The CO stuff you mention i believe revolves around vehicles and running engines/generators while stopped for signifigant amounts of time. I don't think that applies to this scenario of removing the resonator and re-routing the tailpipe to a more conventional position(such that of previous gen non-ecoboost expeditions)

 

The Ecoboost Explorer Sport has had exhaust fume problems in the vehicle under heavy throttle conditions while driving. They are modifying the cabin exhaust flaps inside the bumper, sealing all seams and wire pass-throughs, and as a final step, rerouting exhaust flow downward instead of out the tips. There was a also cop injured while driving an Explorer Police Interceptor and a big investigation of Explorer Police Interceptors.

I would not bother changing the exhaust system, but it's your money. I suppose mimicking the exhaust system of pre-2015 Expys would minimize problems, especially if you could use factory pipes and keep them stainless so you don't add exhaust rusting problems. I just noted an older Navigator on the street with the same straight resonator as the newer Expy. On the Nav, they probably used it to filter out sound even when it had a V8 for the luxury folks. On the Expy, I suspect the basic V6 exhaust tone of a Ford Fusion engine is just not very becoming so they minimize it.

The problem may be more that the rear bumper corners are cut upward instead of being an "air dam" kind of configuration. The resonator looks pretty natural to me and seems to be painted flat black, certainly no uglier than the frame rails under a pickup truck or a spare tire or trailer hitch hanging off the bottom of many vehicles.