Good morning all.
I'm still working through plans for some of the low hanging fruit and researching different brands and such.
One easy item is a cat-back exhaust.


I found a really cheap (and new in box) flowmaster force II kit but I'm not sure that is the best way.


Is there a preferred kit that is known these trucks like?


Unfortunately, from my research it doesn't sound like a V10 makes a sweet throaty note, but I'm not real concerned with that.


I'm looking for peak performance without being super loud.


Any suggestions?

 

The long and the short of it is that no cat-back is going to net you any appreciable performance gains on a stock truck. If increasing performance is your only consideration, your money would be much better spent on other things (gears, tune, etc). If you want to change how the truck sounds, then by all means change the exhaust- but a full cat-back kit would be a waste of money, IMO. The factory exhaust is already mandrel-bent. As long as the pipes are still in good shape, I would recommend just replacing the muffler.

As far as muffler selection... exhaust sound is a subjective thing. However, back when I was researching exhausts for my truck, the mufflers that seemed to have the most positive feedback with the V10 were the AT3030 and AT3030XL. I put the AT3030 on mine and I've been very happy with it. The shop that did the install was very impressed with how it made the V10 sound.

 

Actually my current exhaust is in fantastic shape.


I know you don't really gain on cat-back only, especially since you're starting with a mandrel bent 3".
There are just cheaper items that I can do sooner than later.
Once I get the tuner in and some other pieces, the exhaust would just compliment those.

 

I'd definitely recommend the AT3030. In my opinion it's pretty quiet with the rest of the exhaust stock (unless you really get into it), but if you plan on doing other exhaust mods in the future like headers, y-pipe, or a cat delete the AT3030XL will do a better job of keeping it quiet. I suppose it depends on what your definition of loud is...

 

Of all the mufflers I've heard out there - admittedly, not on a V10, the Magnaflow I installed made the nicest sound without being overly drony or loud at highway speeds. Yet, it's "loudish" when I get on it. With headers and the stock cat, it sounds pretty good at idle and low RPM too.

 

Some of what you hear in that video is intake noise from the Volant

 

The only performance increase your going to see with the exhaust with out headers and spending alot of money is changing the y pipe to the spd pipe. If you look at your y pipe you will see why you will gain some performance low end throttle response was better I was happy with mine but didn't see the fuel mileage increase they claim but didn't expect to either but still happy in the increase in performance.
00-04 Aluminized Y-Pipe [SU0004AL] - $92.95 : SPD Performance, For all your performance needs!

 

Man I really like that. Its not loud at all but you can tell it's got some stuff done.
I've been looking at that Volant as well. I like how it's separated from the engine compartment.

 

I think this is a must. I've been looking to see how this will work with headers. Really though for $300 both could be bought and installed.

 

I'd be leary of a set of $200 headers. If they bolt to the factory down pipe then the ypipe should work fine the long tube kits have there own ypipes

 

Keep in mind, though, that exhaust sound is with headers

 

As was said, the factory exhaust uses good quality mandrel bent pipe, so no need to replace that with the same thing in a kit.
If you want to spend the coin to improve the exhaust, then look towards a quality set of headers that includes a new Y pipe as most do. I went with the Banks headers and Y pipe on my 2V V-10. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ll-w-pics.html
I just recently had an Aeroturbine 3030XL muffler installed to finish the exhaust on my EX, here is a sound clip to compare the factory muffler and the new 3030XL. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l-muffler.html
5Star Tuning will write a set of custom tunes to get the most out of these mods when you fill out their calibration request form for the tunes.

 

I put a Jones Exhaust max flow muffler on my 02. It is a Magnaflow clone. Cost was about $50. I was surprised how quiet it was even after I added headers.

 

Sorry, I don't think I was very clear. The Y pipe and muffler for $300 installed.

 

The FM Force II is a good catback for the V10. I've installed 3 of them.(2 aluminized, 1 stainless) My truck currently has the stainless version. The aluminized muffler rusts out quick in states that see any decent amount of winter precipitation.

A y-pipe like the SPD does help with the power. My qualm with it is the flutter is annoying as hell(with stock manifols and SPD, especially with a louder muffler. Even with a larger muffler like the FM 70BB2 the flutter makes the exhaust sound blah between approx 2000-3000. Yeah some people say they don't have flutter with their stock exhaust manifolds and SPD but they are either lying or don't know what the flutter sounds like.

I put the SPD on my dads V10 which he ran close to a decade.(annoyance be damned) I had a magnaflow y-pipe on mine briefly but was yanked because of how annoying it was. That is part of the reason I went with Doug Thorley headers on my V10. I have been through enough mufflers, ypipes, exhausts, etc to know...