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Old Nov 5, 2012 | 01:31 PM
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Exhaust advice

Throughout my life i have had many old ford trucks and lots of foxbody mustangs and my trucks had dual exhaust and my mustangs as well,none of my trucks had a X pipe or H pipe like my mustangs did but now im getting ready to have a new exhaust put on my 1979 F-100 im wondering if i should have a X pipe or H pipe installed and what would be the advantages of running one as opposed to running dual separate pipes. I have heddman thermal coated headers and plan to use Flowmasters for mufflers and more than likely 3 inch pipe, so if anyone wants to chime in with some advice that would be appreciated. Thanks
 
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Old Nov 5, 2012 | 06:56 PM
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X pipe will help increase flow where the h-pipe is just for pressure balance.
 
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Old Nov 5, 2012 | 08:54 PM
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That's pretty much what I was thinking, looks like I'm gonna go with an X pipe set up
 
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Old Nov 9, 2012 | 01:44 PM
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I don't think you'll be too happy with 3" pipes and flowmasters. It will be a gutless pig until you get it up to 70 mph on the highway. It will make noise, but that's it.
 
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Old Nov 13, 2012 | 08:17 PM
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I would think 2.5" pipe is plenty. You should try Dynomax mufflers. They are excellent.
 
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Old Nov 14, 2012 | 09:49 AM
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I thought 3 inch pipe was appropriate for a 460, I'm using a Holley street avenger 770 carb and Edelbrock rpm intake, and aluminum heads and a comp cam are next for my engine so I figured 3 inch pipe would be preferred for my combo
 
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Old Nov 15, 2012 | 03:21 PM
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The 2.5" pipe is 4.9 square inch cross section. The 3" pipe is 7 square inch cross section. With a single exhaust 3" would seem to make sense, but with duals I think it may be too much. Check around, see what the after market is offering in size for cat back systems. Main thing is to maintain flow velocity and too large of a pipe will hinder that. But I am not an expert on this stuff, in fact I could be wrong.
 
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Old Nov 15, 2012 | 03:37 PM
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There will not be any cat-back systems, it's gonna be from the headers back and I figured with around 450-500 hp and 500ftlbs of torque that 3' pipe would not make my truck a dog off the line but I might be wrong, I have some research to do before I get my exhaust done
 
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Old Nov 15, 2012 | 04:45 PM
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Ideal situation would be if there is dyno testing of different size pipes for same engine similarly set up. Or even similar engine similary set up.

FLowmaster has this chart says 2.5" dual exhaust up to 500 hp, but the chart does not take into account engine size. Discussion above chart good too. Call Flowmaster tech folks since you are buying their mufflers they should give you advice.

Magnaflow has this chart that includes engine size and hp and leaning more towards 3" on a dual for your application although the chart does not have that bid of an engine (stops at 400 cid). See also discussion above chart.

Good discussion here on whether to use 3" vs 2.5" or even 3.5' but are they talking single or duals? And the chart embedded in that link supports your 3" duals.
 
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