Hello FTE,
So I feel like doing a little long term planning for my truck and need a little help. One day, after wife stops spending my paychecks, I would like to do some relatively mundane performance improvements to Rumble, my 02 cc sb f250.

(One of these days I'll get on the PC and create a Sig for my self)

The goal is awesome daily driver, reliable, and more fun to drive than it already is. Not looking for the power to beat Lamborghinis, or the torque to restart dead planets, just better than stock.

So I've been leaning toward AC's, a 6.0 filter housing(kept it off my last truck), 6.0 inter cooler, 6.0 trans cooler, and probably a 38r, with 4 inch pipe out the back, Plus whatever I need to help hold all that together without puking engine or transmission parts all over the freeway.

So the first order of business is this. The truck came to me stock with a muffler delete. I hated how loud it was, to the point that I would start it, put it in gear and idle it out of the neighborhood for fear of what my neighbors would think of me. (lame, I know, that's just how I roll) so I added a straight through muffler, it's better but I still don't like it. I feel like instead of having a nice rumbly exhaust note, it sounds more like a constant mechanical fart.

Question is this, does a 4 inch exhaust help with this? Or is it more of a case where a turbo with a different blade count or pitch on the turbine is needed to break up the sound impulse? Or is it simply a matter of valve timing and header design, and there is no way I'm getting rid of it without building equal length headers or a custom cam. (not happening, and I'll have to live with it.)

Second order of business is finding out what I've over looked. So chime in.

I plan on spending money toward making the truck 100% healthy first. That should be starting to happen as summer slows and fall takes root. I just hate wrenching in the heat. I'd rather freeze my butt off wrenching in the winter. So in the coming weeks I'll start data logging and asking the gurus here what my truck needs to be healthy. I'm not sure that it isn't, I'm just not sure that it is. Then I'll do the cheap mods, hutch/harpoon and whatever else tickles my fancy out of the tech folder.

Let the criticism begin! Or just helpful thoughts, whatever works for you.

Thanks,
Joe

 

If not already done...

1. Open up your air intake
2. Harpoon/hutch your fuel tank
3. Install approrpriate Gauges (exhaust manifold temp, boost, fuel pressure, etc.)
4. Install a transmission valve body
5. Choose a reliable switchable chip
6. Now you can start working on the kinds of stuff you mentioned above (fuel system RR, intercooler, tranny cooler, injectors, turbo, updated chip programming, HPOP, traction bars, etc.).

 

Depending on mileage, pull and reseal the fuel bowl, check the fuel line that runs from the fuel bowl to the rear passenger side head, if it isn't leaking put something around it where the clamp is so it won't rub a hole in it. Replace the factory braided high pressure oil lines and fittings in the head, pull and reseal the HPOP, injector orings, rebuild the oil cooler(new orings). I'm at 237,xxx miles so when I pulled my oil cooler for a rebuild I went ahead and replaced the water pump, and new hoses and clamps. I noticed my starter cranking a little slower so I replaced it, I'd rather do it in the shop on my terms rather than a Walmart parking lot.

Oh and as far as the sound, they all sound like helicopters, I have a Magnaflow 4" with the muffler, it sounds pretty mellow.

 

The 4" exhaust is ideal any time you plan to go over 20 PSI boost. I'm sure if an engineer calculated all the bends in our exhaust, he'd come up with a more specific number - but I came up with the 20 PSI threshold because of watching boost data before/after the 4" upgrade.

Drone can be a factor with the 4", and if you really want to please the neighbors - I suggest a resonator. I don't know if all of them do it, but my Diamond Eye resonator all but killed the EBPV rocket sound on cold mornings.

Making the truck 100%:

Hutch mod and non-stock air intake for sure. If you plan on chipping stock injectors and turbo - the Ford AIS intake is my favorite for many reasons. If you upgrade the turbo and/or the injectors, the AIS can't deliver for those - maybe you'd like an S&B if noise is a factor.

For learning more about the truck, I have fuel pressure and twin EGT gauges, then use Torque Pro for the rest of the gauges while driving. For troubleshooting or conducting deep tests, I have AE - but I find myself reaching for FORScan instead.



Replace the HPOP hoses to the heads and the power steering high pressure hose. Those are reaching the popping age right now. Many of us didn't heed this advice (including myself), and we're still finding red Mercon V stains under the hood.

That's all I can remember until the gauges tell us more.

 

Good read: Failure Prevention Thread

 

As far as muffler I have had a walker btm (complete pile of junk), magnaflow 4", and banks monster 4". I liked the tone on the magnaflow the most but the quietest was the banks. Just a hint of V8 rumble but quiet as stock inside with no drone. Magnaflow was definitely deeper and sounded more rumbly but nothing like mbrp. Walker sounded like a hair dryer.

 

I really appreciate all the advice I'm getting gives me more to mull over, and will hopefully make the future transition to power smoother and less costly.

As far as exhaust note goes the only part I want to get rid of is the fluttery helicopter noise. And to be fair to the truck, it's not loud enough try be bothersome while the windows are up. Or even when they're down, it's when they're down and I'm passing someone on the freeway or they're passing me on the right because I didn't get out of there way fast enough. Also when driving next to concrete barriers. And then it's not so much the volume, I just find the sound unpleasant. But it is loud enough that 20-30 % of people roll there windows up when stuck traffic next to me.

So that still leaves me wondering if a different turbo would maybe alleviate some of that sputter. Something with maybe a different number of blades could maybe do a better job of breaking up the impulse. So let's say our turbos have 10 blades on the turbine maybe something with 7 or 11 would smooth it out. ( Not saying our turbos have 10 just guessing for now). So maybe a bw 362 sxe if it's different blade count and sizes well with the rest of the build would be the cats meow, or in this case mellow rumble. That would also give me an excuse to finally buy a tig welder so I could make home brew t4 mount.

And while we're still on the topic of taming the tail pipe I found these today
Welcome to Carson Stauffer Diesel Performance
Shiney! And I bet they would make my exhaust sound different. Maybe, better too! But that's only in the lottery budget.

 

Interesting toys on that site. I would avoid the fuel tank sump. It may look like it makes sense, but there are dynamics at play that has led to problems.

The number or angle of blades on the compressor side of the turbo have no impact on the exhaust note. The turbine side has very little more impact than the compressor side. Spinning hot exhaust gasses in a tube is what we're dealing with no matter what turbo. The Exhaust Back Pressure Valve (butterfly) should help a little with the spinning part, for those who haven't removed it. The diameter, length, and shape of the pipe, plus any attachments on the pipe (resonator, muffler, exhaust tip) have the biggest impact on the note.

I removed my muffler on my stock 3 1/2" pipe one time - for a day. As soon as I heard that, I arranged for a 4" exhaust.

Ignore the knock in this video, and hear the note. For those wanting the meat - go to 40 seconds on the video.


Stinky has the pulse exhaust, but it's not obnoxious. I'm mulling over whether anything needs to be done about that, because the whole engine is pulsing (the knock thing). I have a Flow-Pro muffler with no resonator right now. My resonator is reversible, and the one time I tried it - it killed the whistle. I might try reversing it later, but it's removed for now.

 

Well ,stinky sounds pretty good. I could probably live with my truck sounding like that. Wasn't seriously considering anything on that site. It was just the first time I've seen fancy headers for our trucks. And they are kinda pretty. It I really wanted headers I'd have to make them myself. The price tag on them is greater than the tig welding machine I would want to make them with. And the machine would open up many new doors for me.

 

I have both the straight pipe and muffler for my 4 inch exhaust from Flo Pro. There is a definite difference in the sound with the muffler. I ran stock 3.5 inch with a straight pipe for 8 years and last fall, my old age caught up with me and made me want to quiet things down for the benefit of others. Any quality exhaust will offer a muffler that should change what you are currently hearing out of the pipe when you are next to a concrete barrier, other vehicles, bridge, etc.

 

The boys at Banks test their muffler designs by doing 1/8th mile runs up and down the street in between the buildings that Banks owns in Azusa. One guy will drive, and the other guys will stand outside and listen to the exhaust note as the truck passes by back and forth over and over. Then they make design adjustments and go out and do it again. Imagine getting paid to do that!

 

Ha would just imagine getting to work at a place like banks engineering. I know not every product they ship is pure gold, but they do throw a consistently good product out the door. When I was still working with my degree, mechanical engineer, that would have been a dream job. As in, I might not have quit to build houses! Anyway I really appreciate all the input. I might have to get the exhaust done before the rest of this takes off. Bumble, my 89 idi desperately needs a new exhaust, Minnesota has not been nice to it. So I figure I might be able to put a new one on Rumble, and take the pieces of the old one and fit them to Bumble. Get a two-fer out of it!

So the lesson here is I'm really cheap, unless it counts(brakes), until I don't want to be(fun things).