Okay so I have a 2003 Ford F150 SuperCrew 4x4 with approximately 150,000 miles. I was thinking about cutting off the stock muffler, and converting it into a straight pipe to make it louder. What are some of your opinions on doing this, and do any of you have straight pipes? How does it sound? Thanks

 

Well if your looking for exhaust clips go to youtube and look up similar year with same engine with straight pipes my opinion is if you like it loud you will like straight pipes but its attention getter with the cops= tickets

straight pipes sound really nasty got a real snap raspy sound to em

 

A straight pipe on these trucks are NOT loud at all. There are 4 cat converters to cover up the sound. I cut the muffler off my truck a long time ago and I didn't like it. Backfired and popped on deacceleration.

I recently gutted my cats and installed my old Super 40, and it sounds much, much better. Loud when I want it to be, but quiet enough when the cops are around.

 

Not to mention that with straightpipes you lose a lot of lowend torque because you lose all of your backpressure.

 

Go with a cat-back, give it a clean professional look...

 

I have had straight pipes with just a Y pipe in place of the muffler for over 1.5 years and it is just fine. i didnt really notice any loss with it either, and it is not that loud. it sounds like a louder FM 40 but WITHOUT the highway drone.

i now have true duals and straight pipes and it is a little bit louder and i still didnt notice much or any loss in performance.

here are some videos of both

MySpaceTV Videos: true duals vid by Josh

 

I went from duals back to single exhaust on my truck and it has a lot more lowend torque than it used to have.
I used to have cat-back 2 1/2" dual tailpipes with a Flowmaster 50 Series muffler and it always had a little bit of a bog off the line, but it would really come to life at about 2300 rpm.
Now, the power is smooth and even all the way from idle to 5,000 rpm.
I loved the way my truck sounded with duals, but it runs 10x better with single exhaust than it ever did with duals.

 

I stuck with a single 3" pipe straight back from the cats....decent growl but not obnoxious and if anything the power is slightly better but nothing to brag about. You shouldn't lose torque unless the cats are cut out, it is all about the scavenging affect that the original system had. Back pressure is a bad thing, not good.

 

I just straight piped my '00 f150 and i like it.....its not super loud but it can be when you want it to be....i also like that it doesnt really have a highway drown(sp) to it. I would do it if i was you.....

 

Is there a back pressure sensor on the 4.6? I know the powerstroke has one, but I didn't know the gasoline engines used them.
Maybe somebody can enlighten me on the physics of how pressurizing the exhaust system can make it more efficient. I've always been told that the key to exhaust system design is increasing velocity, not maintaining back pressure.

 

There's a DPFE sensor, but that doesn't monitor backpressure of the exhaust. As many of you know I too have the true duals. There is no Y pipe, each an exhaust pipe coming off each set of cats. I like it because when I want it to be its loud, when I'm just cruising around town it's not. I like using my exhaust to **** off yuppies like cw. It's pretty intimidating to hear my exhaust roaring up behind you and then seeing my cattle-killing grille guard in the rearview. I personally enjoy seeing the look on yuppie city-folk's face when my front bumper is all they see in the rear-view. If they want to step out at a stoplight I jump out, and they always get back in the cars and drive away.

 

I had cat back dual exhaust on my '97 4.6. Can't beat the smooth sound of the modular motors with duals IMO. When the exhaust rots out on my 03, I'll be adding duals as well.

 

Well I appreciate all of your opinions so far. The reason I thought about straight pipes was because my old neighbor had duel straight pipes running on his Dodge Ram with bored out cats, and it sounded pretty damn nice. I figured if I can make it loud and sound good without having to dump a **** load of money in to an expensive exhaust system then why not do it? With no offense to Club Wagon, but I was checking in to that DPFE sensor and from what I see it does hook into the egr hoses and such. I do happen to know that the egr system does not monitor back pressure in the exhaust. They make the straight through flow mufflers, so what's the difference between that and straight pipes? I have decided to cut off the muffler and run straight pipes, but I think I am going to wait until I reinstate my license so I don't "ask" to get pulled over so I don't add another driving under suspention to my record. Thanks and keep the opinions coming.

 

If all you are doing is shoving a piece of pipe in place of the muffler, you will be surprised how tame it is, the four cats do a really good job in keeping things quiet. As stated before I'm running 3" straight from the Y-pipe with a 4" tip, and these little Civics with the fart can out the back are still louder than me.

 

This is quite interesting...

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