I know, too bad I don't live a mile down the road, then I would be in a different county and not have to have emissions tesing. But how fesable do you think it would be to yank the cat off, clamp on a glasspack and let it run like that. When emissions testing time comes un bolt the glass pack and clamp the cat and tail pipes back on????? Or would a high flow cat give me enough sound to offset the cost of the high flow cat???

 

If you have to deal with emissions testing, I wouldn't even bother with the converter. You're just asking for trouble and it's probably not worth it.
OK. Brother in law has an 85 GT Mustang. No cats because he has an aftermarket H-pipe. Flowmasters and 2 1/4" pipes all the way back.
My wife bought an 86 2.3 car which I converted to a 5.0 engine. I used a factory cat-equipped H-pipe (budget concerns), Flowmasters and 2 1/4" exhaust pipes with LX tips. She complained her car wasn't as loud as his. I found some aftermarket 3" tips and put those on. Side by side, her car is now slightly louder than his and she's happy.
Something along the same line should work for you and no inspection worries. Keep in mind I'm just talking about simple oversized stainless tips, not those freakshow things the Honda boys use. Combined with the "2 into 1" Flowmaster setup mentioned above, they should get you a sound you'll like. I have a similar setup on my 351W F150 and like it very much. A very laid back idle, but sounds tough with any throttle.

 

So, upsizing my pipes will make it louder? Will upgrading to a high flow cat, with 3" pipes all the way out make enough extra sound to offset the cost of the new cat and pipes???? I found this high flow cat for $80(don't know if there any good or not). So if I upgrade my pipe coming off the exhaust manifolds(after 0-2 sensor) and put a high flow cat with 3" pipes all the way back it will make more sound??

 

Ok, I'm no exhaust expert but from what I know moving up to 3" exhaust all the way back won't be louder and will actually cost you some torque. If you had a 460 or turbo'd/supercharged 351 then 3" would be a good thing.
As I related above, just adding big tips was plenty enough to get a booming exhaust. The tips cause the exhaust to resonate more as it exits. Easily demonstrated by the Honda freaks again. If you check out one of their cars, you'll discover that 95% of them have completely stock (and tiny) exhaust all the way back to the can on the back and they make a huge amount of noise.
Length of the exhaust also has an effect. With identical exhausts, a 5.0 Mustang is louder than my LWB F150 because my pipes have to go a lot further to exit under the rear bumper. If you set up your Bronco with the same exhaust but with exits in front of the rear wheels, it would be louder than either.
If it were me, I'd skip the "free flow" cat. Yes they do flow more, but the difference is incremental compered to a fairly late model converter in good condition. In the 70's -early 80's, converters were often filled with pellets and very much affected exhaust flow. Nowadays everybody uses a "honeycomb" design that causes very little restriction. If for some reason your cat NEEDED replacing, then yeah, it'd be an excellent time to step up to a free flowing one. Other than that, the expense isn't worth it.
You might look into 2.5" pipes, if you want. On most of our vehicles we're interested in all around daily performance so 2 1/4" works just fine. Plus our local exhaust guy gets all twisted up if you suggest you want something bigger. "Twisted up" means barely reasonable prices turn into extortion and you still have to beg him to do it at that.
Before you get too wild, score a simple 3" tubular tip (or tips) as long as you can fit a straight piece, tack weld it on and check out what it does. When you redo your exhaust, just transfer them over to the new setup and weld them on properly. If you don't like them, I'm sure you can sell em to somebody. They're very popular on pickups.

 

I can't belive how quiet my Bronco is with no muffler and only about 1 foot of pipe behind the Cat. I put a cherry bomb on and it made it sound like I had a stock muffler on it. I would like to have the exhaust exit in front of the passenger tire, but I have heard that it's illegal in Ohio, they want the exhuast STOCK, wether or not you pass emissions. I did have the pipes end in front of the tire on my F-150 and I heard no complaints from the testing people. I don't mean to sound dumb but these tips your talking about, could I take a peice of 3" pipe and make my own tip out of it or do I need a special "tip"???

 

I don't see why not. The ones on the Mustang are just polished stainless tubes basically. Slash cut on one end for looks and "necked down" on the other end to fit the 2 1/4" pipes.
Make your own out of whatever. Cut some notches in one end so you can fold down "tabs" to weld onto the existing pipe, or buy some of the 3" to 2 1/4" adapters I've seen in local auto parts stores.
I believe the key is to make them at least 10-12 inches long to get the "boom" you're after. 3 inch long tips are going to have little effect, if any.
My daily driver 89 F150 has a 4.9. Stock exhaust all the way back with the exception of no muffler at all. It amazes me how quiet it is, no muffler needed. I have no doubt careful choice of a muffler combined with a big exhaust tip would have it sounding as raspy as I liked. I'll pass though, straight 6's with loud exhaust have a unique and rather weird sound to them. Not exactly pleasing to my ear. That's one engine I prefer to use in stealth mode.
Most commonly the rule is that the exhaust is to exit from the vehicle "behind the passenger compartment". Obviously on a pickup, once you go past the cab you can generally do what you like. On a Bronco however, the passenger compartment is pretty much the whole rear of the vehicle. I've noticed some late model Mustangs (and of course old Corvettes) have OEM exhaust that exits in front of the rear tires, so why not a Bronco? Best to find out for sure before you spend money though.

 

I have a good idea....

route the exhaust to the driver side and up next to the rear of the door like a diesel truck....that should make it loud enough...

To be honest with you, the problem of Bronco's and other Ford truck is the Y pipe....and the cat configuration.....

and to change this means you have to spend the bucks.....

The mid muffler that Ford uses to join the two collector pipes really quiets the exhaust down....then, the cat is at 3" tubing and reduces down to 2.5inches
in order to create backpressure necessary to keep the converter hot.

This will also have a muffling effect.

WHat you need to do is to get a Bassani Y pipe with dual cats....the Y connection flows smoother and lets the sound through...

the dual cats will outflow the stock units...while keeping the fumes clean...

then add the 40 delta series flowmaster @ 2.5 inches...go single or dual outs your choice...

then add some 3 inch stainless tips like Ben said...this should resonate to knock anybody's dentures out.

 

My unlce had something done to his truck to make it sound nice, not quite as loud as I want, but loud enough. I am trying to find out what he had done. Whatever it was he spent $200 to get it done. Could he have had done what you are talking about? My Bronco exhaust is a little different than stock. I had the stock front cat rust out where the two pipes came into it. The place that worked on it yanked out both cats and installed a (home made)Y-pipe and a single cat(high flow, or not I don't know) then single exhaust all the way back to stock exit location. Unless I am thinking wrong my Bronco's O-2 sensor is mounted on a cross pipe betweein the dual pipes coming off the exhaust manifolds. So, what I could do is cut off the cat and home made Y-pipe, put on adapters and bring the pipes back and instead of on top of each other have them side by side. Install two cats then have a shop put me pipes the rest of the way back for a dual look at the back and finally polish it off with some tips. I could save a little money by doing some of the work myself, will this idea work or do I need to reread your post????

 

My mistake, it did not have dual cats, the front was what you called a mid muffler.( I could swear it was a cat). I reread your post. What your saying to do is have it in this way,
exhaust manifolds------------dual cats-------------Bassani Y-pipe---------Flowmaster(dual or single out)-----------------tips???
Am I understanding this right?? What I was thinking of doing was this,
exhaust manifolds-----------(reroute pipes side by side instead of over/under)-------dual cats-----------have pipes routed all the way back(one cross over to drivers side somewhere in the run) for dual exhaust-----------------tips. Will this work and still keep me emissions clean?? They usally don't do a visual inspection any more, they just ram the testers up the tail pipes and check for emissions output, besides I still will have a cat on both pipes. There is a truck store in town and they have about 3-5 trucks owned by several employees that really sound NICE. If they are open tomorrow I am going to go talk to them and see what they say about this set up, and find out what they do to their trucks to make them sound loud.

 

Wolfman....

What I meant to say was the stock configuration is as follows...

the exhaust maniflds lead to the down pipe on each side (the passenger side is smaller in pipe diameter than the driver side) then you have the O2 sensor cross tube....then they converge into a chamber like a small muffler instead of a nice Y pipe....(I guess it was cheaper to fab the joints with a small muffler than it was with a nice flowing Y pipe) then the single 3 inch pipe goes into the cat converter....and the rear outlet is 2.5 inches....(this creates backpressure to keep the converter hot and this also kills the sound levels)

Then the 2.5 inch pipe goes into the muffler to further make the truck quieter.....

What I was suggesting using the bassani Y pipe....flows better than the stock garbage....the B y pipe also has the converters built in....All you need to do is to get the rest of the exhaust installed....

the oulet of the converters should be a dual output flange...then have the exh go into a 40 series flowmaster and out...try and keep the pipe diameter the same all the way through the truck....as this will keep sound levels consistence...

the less you restrict the flow of gases through the pipes, the more the sound will come out...

 

Just got out of bed so if I missed something here sorry.
The Y-pipe is going to take the two downpipes and make them 1 pipe correct? so I have one pipe then the cat(Y-pipe package), flowing into a flowmaster 40 series muffler with dual or single outs then the rest of the exhaust? If so, would it be possible to do what I was saying by basically making it true dual by doing it like this exhaust manifolds>>>>>(reroute pipes side by side instead of over/under)>>>>>dual cats>>>>>have pipes routed all the way back(one cross over to drivers side somewhere in the run) for dual exhaust>>>>>tips....... I don't mean to be asking the same questions over and over again I just want to make sure and get all the details strait. Will what I am talking about provide more or less sound than your plan and will it be street legal. I have until Sept. 2004 until I have to be emissions tested so I have the time to do this. I had a guy put a similer system to what your talking about on my truck I had, ask him, I talked to him about it 10-15 times before I had him start the work. I just want to make sure what is being done is going to be done right and still pass emissions. blah blah blah.
Thanks for still putting up with me.

 

Capone,
Forget my last post, I was going to delete it and retype it but it won't let me.
I think what I am going to do(when the money comes in) is basically put dual exhaust on my Bronco. I will take the two down pipes bring them back a little and put two cats on them. Then route the exhaust back. I will have one pipe exit the rear passenger side and one on the drivers side. I will reuse my cat I have now on one run and buy a new cat for the other run(unless for some reason I should buy two new cats).
I have asked in another thread if having dual exhaust will pass emissions and the few that answered said it should, you answered about the politics of it, but do you think it will pass emissions?? I really want dual exhaust and this is pretty much what I will have by doing the way I have stated above Please tell me if I am thinking wrong, I don't want to put money into it and it not work.
Thanks,
Kevin