i would like to make my truck louder and i talked to my buddy and he said to cut the pipe and make it go into the bed and itlll be louder is this true? i already have an aftermarket muffler but id like to confirm what my friend said with you guys and i have to keep the muffler i think because i live in california and i also have to have both cats too so would cutting the pipe so it points toward the bed make it louder? right now the pipe goes out the sides of the truck thank you

 

Cut it off right after the muffler and it'll be plenty loud...lol

Any kind of turndown (even facing up) will more than likely quieten it down.

 

itll be turned up and its right after the muffler and itll be pointed to the bottom of the bed so wouldn't the sound reflect off of it therefore "creating" more sound thus making it louder?

 

First, don't run the exhaust through the bed floor like the diesel guys do...

Ok, how much time and money do you want to throw at this?

A simple turndown facing the ground under the truck will increase perceived noise inside the truck. Same with pointing it up but I'd be worried about the heat - you don't want to set things in your bed on fire... It's not going to make the truck louder to the rest of the world.

With cats, particularly the stock cats there's a limit to how loud it will get. There's no way around that. Even a straight pipe isn't that loud.

Larger pipes will be louder.

Start with the Y pipe and larger converters. This is going to be tough because CA has some stupid laws about replacing these parts. Maybe someone from CA knows about this and how to work within the rules. A good Y pipe, even if you have it made with a 3" outlet and some high flow cats will let the noise though. Then you get a 3" muffler and tailpipe. Magnaflow makes a 3" tailpipe that works well on bronco's but should also work on a pickup. PN 15003 and it's like $60.

 

If you point you exhaust up at your bed, it will do what the above posters mentioned. Also, it's a really good way to start unnecessary rust.

I'd say dump it out the side like you're doing. With the right muffler/glasspack(or just no muffler), it will sound good.

 

I'm not talking about going through the floor of the bed or through anything for that matter, just a simple turn up instead of turn downs because my truck is lifted. That's the only thing I'm talking about doing. the existing pipe already points up and then comes back down and out to the sides I would simply just cut it at the point where it points upward and take the rest of the pipe off. So if I did that then it would appear louder correct?

 

It will resonate in the cab more, due to the sound bouncing between the steel bed floor and the pavement. This is not the kind of "loud" you want, unless you enjoy yelling to you passengers while on the highway.

Purchase a louder muffler and dump the exhaust the correct way

 

I'm going to assume you're young 'cause you sound like me 15-20 years ago... So I'll also assume you're not rich... That was also me 15-20 years ago...

Garth is right, dumping the exhaust under the truck, particularly pointing up to the bed will make it sound louder inside which isn't necessarily what you want.

Here's what I'd do... Or basically what I actually did at 17...

Cut the tailpipe in a straight section if you can so you can reuse it if you want. Remove it for now.

Drive truck - loud enough? Stop.

If not, remove muffler and leave enough pipe to adapt a new muffler or straight pipe.

Drive truck. Yes, with no muffler... How does it sound?

My 89 Bronco with stock cats was still really quiet. 5.0 mustangs with flowmasters were a lot louder... So I used a straight pipe and reconnected it to the tailpipe. Sure it technically failed inspection but in years and years of getting annual inspections no one ever failed it because it simply wasn't overly loud or nasty sounding.

My 86 F150 on the other hand had a replacement cat and it sounded like crap to put it mildly.

Now this is where it gets fun...

Assuming it's too loud you'll want to go to your local autoparts store to test mufflers. Buy a muffler and carefully remove it from it's box and put in on the stub you left when you cut the old muffler off. Don't clamp it or anything like that but start the truck and rev it a few times to get a feel for the sound. Don't like it, return it and try again. Once you find what you like then you can clamp it and install a hanger to support it. Don't drive the truck because it can and will rattle off and fall... Then you own said muffler...

Either dump it straight out the back, install a turndown pointing down, to the side or up, which ever way sounds the best, or you can reinstall the tailpipe or get a new tailpipe. If you get a new tailpipe I recommend a 3". Also, some mufflers perform better with a tailpipe, flowmaster for example runs better with at least 12" of tailpipe behind the muffler. That can be a turn down if it's long enough.

 

yeah im 18, ill post a picture up of how the pipe is ran, and thats not a bad idea but i have a concern see i live in California so im not sure if there is a law against not having a muffler i know that there is a law of having too loud of exhaust which is what happened to the friend i mentioned, he has his running like i said and id show it but i wouldn't dare take a picture underneath another mans truck thats not right, ive also had to replace my cats, im not sure how big my pipe is but ill let you know in a few hours, thank you guys for the help

 

here are some pictures i just took IMAG0935_zps2a206d23.jpg photo by 1chrishenley | Photobucket
IMAG0934_zpsb452a9a5.jpg photo by 1chrishenley | Photobucket
IMAG0933_zps160c8809.jpg photo by 1chrishenley | Photobucket
IMAG0932_zpse9b96a45.jpg photo by 1chrishenley | Photobucket

 

If I were you I would cut a few inches past the muffler on the flat part before it turns up. This way if you don't like it you can put your tails back on. Get a couple turndown pipes that go over the outlets of the muffler where you cut. If you cut 4 slots down the end of the turndown where the clamp goes around you can tighten the clamp enough to keep it from falling off but not distort the pipe too bad. This way you can play around with where you want to point them. Once you're happy then you can crank down a bit to keep them from falling off. See the attached pic to see what I mean by the 4 slots.

That looks like a flowmaster 40 series. I don't know that you're going to get much louder without running a straight pipe.

 

Ok, couple other things I thought of.

1 - Cherry Bomb Extreme muffler. That's about as loud as you can get while still having a muffler.

2 - Install a cutout before the muffler. Have a muffler shop weld in a y shaped cutout and you can remove the cap when you want to be loud but you still have a muffler, tails etc. You can upgrade this with an electric valve and with a flip of the switch go from mild to wild.

#2 is what I'm planning with my 86 F250. I'm going to run a 3" single exhaust with a somewhat quiet muffler but before the muffler I'm going to run a cutout with an electric valve so I can be loud when I want. Since I'm not a fan of pure open exhaust I'm probably going to run a short glass pack or something similar but it's going to be loud.

 

that is what i was going to say i wanted to do in the long run before i saw this wow thats crazy and about how much do you think it'd cost to do the electric valve option?

 

my concern is what about smog? will it make me fail smog if they see the cut outs, im also thinking about redoing my exaust is ran because currently its running from the headers into a cat with dual ins and a single out and the out goes to another cat then to the in of the muffler and the muffler has dual outs i was thinking about running true duals but would that mean that i need dual cats on each side or just a single cat on each side? so here is what i want the route to be if you dont already know lol. headers to cat to cut out to muffler would that be legal in California im not up on all the rules because they already have too many of them

 

Check this thread out - My homemade Ypipe. - FSB Forums

Make some notes, print some pictures and talk to a muffler shop that can mandrel bend pipe and see if they can make one up with cats for you. Or if you know someone that can weld you can make one yourself. Mandrel bent pipe stays the same size throughout the bend whereas compression bent pipe necks down. The factory uses compression bent pipe and some of it it really tiny. Lots of power and sound to be had with a good Y pipe.

I wouldn't worry about true duals, although you could go with a lightning style setup. Personally I think 2-1/4" into a 3" single is plenty for these trucks. Plus it'll be easier to smog because it looks stock. Duals have a different sound than a single but a single is going to perform better, especially on a truck. Of course we're probably only talking a few HP so... I would still do a single - it runs better and it's just easier, especially being in CA. If the smog station see's duals they're going to give you a very hard time. What engine do you have? 302 or 351? Also, what year? With a 351 you might be able to get a lightning system past if the lightning is a newer truck. That would give you duals but you may have to go to a referee station to get it all squared away the first time. But I have no idea about CA smog laws other than a few things I read a long time ago.

As for the cutout, as long as it's behind the cats they should have no problem with it. If you're worried, take the electric valve off and put the cap on. Tell them it's for off-road only. The cutout pipe is about $40 or so and the electric valve kit is another $170, so $210 plus install. For the Y pipe I have about 120 in material without cats, so that's probably about $300-400 plus labor.