Party on Wayne

 

I have the full powerpack, but i bought the truck with it already installed. The previous owner installed it when he was unhappy with the power to pull his 32' toybox, loaded with dirt bikes, quads, firewood, and all the other stuff to take 3 girls and his wife camping, lol. He said he noticed a differance, not sure if it was enough for the cost with the install at Banks, but he said there was a differance.

My observations, The headers are top notch, thick flanges, and quality stainless steel. Fit is impecable. Y-pipe looks good too. Cat back system, don't waste your money. The tubing is thin and uncoated, mine is so rusted it is not even funny, and I live in SoCal, hardly a harsh envirment for rust. Additionally the tubing is 3.5", and along with the headers, the v10 lost quite a bit of low speed torque. I replaced the Banks cat back with a Cherry Bomb Extreme, and made my own side exit exhaust in 3" tubing, and noticed an immediate pick up of low speed torque. Lastly, the Banks tuning. I have a thread on here about Banks tuning vs. 5 Star tuning, vs. Stock Ford tuning. Lets just say that Banks tuning came in dead last.....

Hope that helps some

 

I know you didn't ask about it, but I wouldn't spend money on the "RamAir" from them either. All it is is a replacement front airbox and a washable k&n style filter. The front replacement has the same size inlet as the stock Ford airbox, yet the housing is small enough that a stock paper filter will not fit inside the thing. I think just a replacement drop in filter (dry) would work just as well, if not better as the stock airbox is actually bigger.

 

Straightaxle Well i will agree with you on the Ram-Air, But what i dont get is you said the v10 lost quite a bit of low speed torque.... how do you know that you said you bought the truck with it allready installed? And from the cat back you said thin and rusted, My Banks 3.5" is stainless and so is the muffler and as far as i know banks had nothing from the muffler to the Y pipe. Also looking through my Banks muffler its a straight shot through, So you say the straight through muffler you put on and the 3" pipe made that differance ?

 

We have 3 work trucks with v10's, and they all have 3.73 gears, and they all have more low end power than my truck (below 2000 rpm). The only thing that I could tie the differance, other than mine having 4.30 gears was the exhaust mods. My Bamks system is not stainless, so that is likely the differance in quality, and there is about a 3 foot section between the cat and the muffler that is part of the cat back where the piping expands to 3.5". I wanted a higher velocity exhaust, and was willing to lose some power at 5000 rpm for some useable gains down low. The muffler I added is not straight through, but is chambered, and on my truck it made a significant differance at cruise rpm, allowing the truck to maintain speed up grades with less throttle input.
Don't get me wrong, I am not bashing Banks (other than there tuning), as the truck definately has more power above 3000 rpm, it just seemed to loose quite a bit in overdrive compared to the completely stock work truck that we use daily. I just wanted the OP to know that there are cheaper alternatives that will work just as well in a usable rpm range.

 

Well.... Got my Banks Powerpack system done today and took it out for a ride, Just want to say that i ordered my 2001 SD Crew Cab Long Bed V10 new it has 60,000 miles on it now so i know how it drives its not somthing i just got, With that being said, The first thing i noticed was the low end response and torque WOW like night and day difference, FYI i do have 4:30 gears in it. I also installed Banks Transcommand...I wish i would have done that years ago, just what that 4R100 transmission needed. I opted not to put Banks EconoMind Module on just wanted V10 to breath better but now im so impressed with this i may add it also. The exhaust at an idle is quiet, i was worried about the drone everyone talks about i dont hear that at highway speed, But i have not pulled my 5th wheel with it yet, You stand on it people will notice... it sounds pretty kool wait nobuddy says pretty kool anymore do they? Guess that shows my age. Anyway Banks a little $$$ but worth it and made in the good old USA ill spend a little more for that anyday.

 

That is good to hear. If you like the sound of the muffler, then you will like the muffler, mine didn't drone, even while towing, I just didn't like the sound.

I will caution you on the Banks tuning. Spend the money on a 5 star custom tune instead. Look up my thread on Banks vs. 5 star, the synopsis is that the Banks tuning was slower than the factory Ford tuning. At least it did on my truck.

Glad to hear that you are enjjoying it.

 

Straightaxle, I appreciate the straight talk. I'm so sick of a million different opinions. I've got a stock exhaust system on my V10 '02 Excursion and I'm just trying to find a logical package that doesn't blow my budget or set off car alarms as I drive down my street.

 

Utah- do you realize this thread is three years old? Check out the Excursion forum and the V10 forum. I have an MBRP 4" and spd y pipe. Sounds cool but a good bit of drone. Several others have gone straight pipe or a aeroturbine muffler.

 

I am with Utah on this. I am getting ready to decide what I need to do as well.

It is critical that I don't lose low end torque! Fordred, let us know how it does when pulling 5th wheel.....I pull 10K and need more torque. Currently have the 3.73 ratio, but someday would like to splurge and go for the 4.30's.

So far, seems Banks was the way to go, but if there is some other proven and validated system out there, let us know what it is so we can check into it.

I wonder if there is a 5 star tuning done with Banks Headers and exhaust. Thought Banks was all SS. Will check that for sure.

 

My V-10 EX is used to pull a 12K TT all over the East, it started out with 3.73 gears and stock exhaust, was constantly dropping out of OD on the slightest little grade or hill or any throttle increase from cruising speed. Installed Banks headers (all stainless steel) and Y-pipe and left the rest of the exhaust stock, saw a very noticeable increase in torque from just off idle and across the entire RPM range. Towing under the same conditions saw about a 1 MPG increase and it stayed in OD more. 1 MPG doesn't sound like much but for my combo at the time that was a 15% increase in MPG, it was getting about 6.5 towing. Bumping the gears up from 3.73 to 4.88 pushed the mileage up to 9 MPG and it now stays in OD unless pulling a serious hill. I then added custom tunes from 5Star Tuning, they took all of my mods into consideration for the tunes, the tunes improved drivability in all situations and the improvements to the trans performance are great, the 4R100 acts like I have always wanted it to now! Best towing mileage so far with all mods (now run 35" tires so effective gear ratio is 4.39) has been 9.25 MPG, that's a nice bump from the 6.5 to 7 MPG it was getting in stock form.

 

Tom, best info I have seen so far!

Likely I only will go up in tire sized to 285 from 265. Did that once and liked the 285's better so will get them next. With that and 4.30 gears, was thinking I would be nearing 4.10 to 4.20 area which should be a great improvement over the 3.73.

So way I see it....

Rear end axle ratio change, add limited or locker, approx. $2000.
Front end axle ratio change, approx. $1500
Banks Headers/YPipe approx. $1500
5 Star.....several hundred I assume.

So about $5500 upgrade! Ouch!

Assuming this is all done with labor as I can't do gears and don't want the challenge of headers and broken studs, welding, etc.

 

Shop around and make sure whoever you have do the gears has plenty of experience with these axles (Dana 50 front, Sterling 10.5 rear) and has a very good rep. They will drive you crazy with noise and vibrations if not done well. The headers weren't really that hard, just time consuming, there are a couple of photo write-ups in the EX forum, one of them mine that walk you through the job and dealing with broken studs with different methods.
Your cost estimates seem realistic and may even come out a little under. At least the tuner is plug and play!

Shop around, I bought my Banks headers from AutoAnything on a Black Friday sale for $850-ish and found a set of EX axles already setup with 4.88s and a rear locker for $1200 (and a drive to get them) and my SCT tuner came from %Star Tuning at a reduced price on a Memorial day sale.
Good luck!

 

IMHO, and I will say it forever

banks has a MUCH better marketing dept than an engineering dept, in my, and many others, opinions...

You can get much better, much cheaper and get more return on investment...

do your research and don't drink TOO much of the kool-aid

 

I bought my banks exhaust kit about this time a couple years ago for <$900 with free shipping, black friday will be here soon

I cant speak for their other products, but their headers are good stuff.