Currently have the truck apart for a full resto. Just got the who drive train bolted back in this week so my plan is to start working on the exhaust. Ive been delaying looking into it as I could never make up my mind on how I want to do it so I need some advice
The original idea I had in mind was purchasing long tube headers and shooting straight out to the back with dual glass packs. I still like that idea but I am seeing it isnt so straight forward.
Seems like some suggest going headers that stick outside the frame and running along that direction. My local shop want $1200 for the build if I purchase the headers myself which seems like a ton of money. Ive done all the work on the truck myself and am a competent welder so I am happy to do it myself
What headers would you suggest buying (in frame or out)? And dependent on that what path should I take?
Pictures of setups would be great. I am having troubles finding photos of others
Thanks

 

What kind of truck 2wd or 4wd? Do you have dual tanks? Dual tank or 4wd you can't really go straight back inside the frame. Outside the frame headers makes exhaust routing a lot easier.

 

Fair enough I definitely failed giving a lot of important info lol
Truck is 77' F150 4x4 with a 351m. It has dual tanks, although I haven't decided if I am removing one of them or not.
Was thinking running through the frame and then dropping underneath the gas tank by 6 inches or so, maybe wrapping the pipe if needed

 

Your exhaust would be hanging pretty low if you did that. You also have to deal with the transfer case and front drive shaft on that side too. Typically for inside frame routing the drivers side exhaust makes a sharp bend and routes under the bellhousing to passenger side then straight back, parallel with the passenger side. Once you get over the rear axle it can make a Y to route back to drivers side. You have to be mindful of the rear gas tank and possibly your spare tire back there.

For my current build I am using inside frame long tube headers, I will be making a 90 degree turn on drivers side to route to passenger side. Driver's and passenger side exhaust 2.25" pipe will be merged into a single 3" with a 35" long cherry bomb glass pack as close to the merge point as possible. I will have 3" pipe from glass pack to just in front of rear tire and will use some different bends to turn down and under frame to exit in front of passenger tire. That's the plan in my head anyway, how it works out once I am under there routing pipe. I plan to get everything in place, do some tack welds then drop the whole assembly so I can weld it on the ground. I worked in an auto shop years ago and tried welding exhaust on the vehicle and sucked at it. Some guys can do it, but I am not one of those guys.

 

I had a 79 F-250 4wd with two tanks and I went with fenderwell hedders and the exhaust exited in front of the rear tires.
I don't know if you can do that with your truck or not. Not too familiar with F-150s.





He fabricated this piece. It looked easy to him and I liked it.






A few years back I had a 1972 2wd F-250 Ranger XLT Camper Special with a 390 and a C6 and two factory gas tanks.
After doing some engine upgrade and installing a set of hedders I had a friend that worked at a muffler shop and he built me a 3" single exhaust.
2 1/4" pipe from the reducers onto a piece he made that the two 2.25" pipes went into and came out one 3".
3" from there to a Magnaflow performance muffler and then into a 3" mandrel bent tail pipe over the axle and out the same as the factory exhaust.
I was very pleased with his work and how it sounded.

 

Judging by both of your posts I think it might be in my interest to do a single exit and have both merge into a 3 inch pipe. I was considering picking up a pipe bender but don't know how exhaust pipe is going to bend with a floor mount unit.
Probably going to order the summit racing headers inside the frame and do some bends from there.
Truck currently has no body pieces on it so the world is my oyster with getting it installed.
@mterickson How soon are you hoping to do your exhaust system? I would love some photos to get an idea if you are doing it soon

 

The exhaust on the '72 is very similar to how I plan to set mine up. Thanks for the visuals. I think I have a bit more room to work with since I have a T18 in mine and it isn't as wide as the the C6 and I think my frame is wider. I have a bunch of pre-made exhaust bends that I can cut up and weld back together if I need to make any dog leg shapes like your exhaust guy did. I hope to avoid those if I can though.

 

I took this picture today, it's going to be a minute before I can work on it again. It's usually warm enough that I can work outside comfortably around May. I still need to assemble engine and do a lot of cleanup. I hope to have engine back in and ready to fire in June.

 

I've never liked one exhaust pipe being longer than the other.
The single exhaust worked out perfect for me.
Besides, I was trying to keep the truck as close to original in appearance as possible.
I even kept the factory split rims.








This what I did on my current 1976 F-250 4-wd with an aftermarket auxiliary gas tank.

 

HA! Yeah that will put a damper on the plans I guess. Im a lucky enough ******* that has a heated shop to work in, otherwise id be stuck in the same situation


Beautiful truck! I have gone a mostly stock route with some exceptions. Im looking to build it up to be a slight performance off road truck. Put a 4 inch lift at 35s on it but aside from that everything is staying stock.
My dad has a 64' f100 that is all original ford parts and it pains him to watch me modify it even to this small level haha

 

It looks like its a nice truck under the snow.


This is what I woke up to this morning. Its pretty much all gone this evening.

 

You can go in frame headers and then cross the driver side head pipe over to the right to pass the TC, then go back over to the left and from there back have conventional mufflers into tail pies running over the axle and to the rear to each side of the gas tank. I Had my guy bend me two tips, that turn to one side right, then put a 45 bend halfway out so I could easily adjust the tips for to the sides and downward, but tucked close to the edge of the bed sides. This was in 2015 before body redo, etc .... the day he last did my tail pipes / mufflers. Still there, just painted black now.



2.25" pipes & turbo mufflers.



Next time, since he is ill, I'll likely buy a complete kit and do it here, or maybe take to Roanoke to that shop on Peters Creek Road.

 

Looking at buying these headers from summit. https://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-G9034
dont know if anyone has experience with them.
Id ultimately like to ceramic coat them but it’s not in the budget this year. Opinions on wrapping them instead? Might just keep it that way honestly

 

Those are the headers I bought for mine but they're not installed yet. They do have thick flanges which will help keep them from leaking right away.

The coating they come with is only for rust prevention, it will cook off. I'm going to use high temp exhaust paint on mine.

You're going to get varied opinions on exhaust wrap. On my Harley I won't use the stuff due to the wrap holding moisture and can cause heavy rusting.

Once you wrap them, they are wrapped forever. If you ever try to remove the wrap the headers will look horrible.

On the plus side, the wrap will keep under hood temps down and if wrapped correctly it does look good.

If I were going to wrap headers, these cheap summit headers would be a good candidate for that. I would never wrap a more expensive set that's been ceramicoated.

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^This. I would never wrap headers but if you do that’s it. The wrap is on for life. I would save up and get ceramic coated parts. It’s going to be much more expensive to buy uncoated ones, have all of the rust and scale blasted off and then have a local shop coat them. Depending on how long you use them they may not even salvageable. Pitting and pin holes might render them as scrap.