can anyone tell me where i can find a cheap,reliable,LOUD exhaust for my 04 f150 stx heritage with a 4.2L

 

A muffler shop can custom make you one. Get some type of flowmaster or magnaflow mufflers to put on and tell the to put you true duals, and IF you want to spend a little extra you can do a x pipe too. Personally I would go with some glass packs(the shorter the louder) for a louder exhaust than the flowmaster types and you'll still gain HP, because you'd be getting rid of the stock restrictive exhaust.

 

Since we weren't there, we can only go by the story you are relaying. But if the guy was talking about just replacing the mufflers, he was exactly correct. You really aren't going to have any appreciable difference in performance just replacing the rear muffler.

Now if he was talking about replacing the whole system [cat back, that is], then he was half-right. There would be some difference, but without other mods in the system, they would not likely be very noticeable. In a 0-60 or 1/4 mile the difference wouldn't be enough that you could negate it with a better launch.

The main reason to do an exhaust mod is if you like the sound or if you are going to get serious about your engine mods (read: supercharger).

 

It has been proven on dynos that replacing a stock muffler with a flowmaster type will give you about 3-4 HP, and a complete true duals exhaust can give around 6-10 HP, but I agree you couldn't feel 3 HP, not in take offs, not in 1/4 or really anything.

But he said you will not get any power, which is false.
If he said you won't feel the difference of 3 HP then that would be understandable.

Like timhood just said, if you are serriously modifying your engine or just like the sound then this is a good thing to do.

 

Make sure you get the mufflers from somewhere else than Meineke or exhaust shop. They will stick ya!!

 

Therory arguments aside, I had an 18 inch Magnaflow catback system put on my truck and it gave a very nice increase in power, from squeaking the tires on laurch to five foot of rubber on launch. Gas mileage went up, on the highway. Problem was, it was too dang loud. At steady light throttle up a grade (a daily thing where I drive) it was down right annoying.
Noise does wear you out pretty fast.
I switched to a 24 inch Magnaflow muffler and am very happy with it. You know it's back there when you nail it, but just a touch of growl on long slow grades.

If I was just shooting for a little more power, and improved highway MPG I would put a 18-24 inch Magnaflow in the stock pipe.
A 100 buck solution that should pay for itself pretty quickly.

No catback system is going to add 12+ horsepower to the 4.6, but 3-6 is realistic. Too little restriciton and you might lose some low end, which you very much need on these heavy, tall geared trucks.
Chris

 

I installed a pair of three chamber flowmasters on my 2000, 5.4. It has duel exhaust with one equilizer, and turn downs over the axles. It is not loud at all, but sounds good. The only reason our new 05 doesn't have them is...I don't want to void the warranty. It is not an age thing, it is a matter of taste and pride. I couldn't imagine not having a truck...in way, it is an extention of me.

 

ibm, you may never be chosen Miss Congeniality around here, but in essence I agree with what you are saying. Putting that kind of noise into peoples' yards and homes is just plain RUDE. Period. There have always been the insecure and immature who crave attention and go to a lot of absurd lengths to get it. The rest of us try to put up with it and before long a law gets passed and everyone suffers for the inconsiderate actions of the few. Real men don't need to make loud noises to get noticed.

 

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Yeah, I won't be Miss Congeniality on this issue. I have spent 18 years flying noisy military aircraft - some say its the sound of freedom, but to me its noise. Give me good sound proofing any day. Too bad those Allison T-56's don't come with mufflers.

 

Thanks for your service-each freedom comes with a corresponding responsibility.
Can't tell you how many peaceful evenings we've had ruined by one of these Nascar-wannabe-fantasizer-in-a-worthless-old-truck twerps ramming around the streets or sitting in the yard with the hood up, horsing the engine "working on his ride." What's comforting to know is that the universal law of What Comes Around Goes Around applies. Just not always in my preferred time frame.

Nuff said.

 

All these mods from what I would really understand (ie air filters, magnets, exhaust, throttle body spacers, ace of spades card in the spokes...) dont really help that much if at all for milage or power cause in the end, the computer just re-adjusts everything. Engine getting too high of air/fuel mixture than what the computer says it should get, then it tones down to what is suppose to be... You want real differences, reprogram the computer. Everything else is more less bells and whistles!

 

Not really, the computer does not 'correct it back'. That's not how it works at all.
If you bring in more air then the computer keeps the mix percentage the same, but not the volume. Thus you get more efficient, more power at a lesser throttle aperture. And therefore slightly better gas mileage. The same is true at the exhaust. Putting on better flowing air filters or better flowing exhaust has been proven over and over to improve performance and gas mileage.

The car manufacturers know this and use it their designs. Watch the evolution of car engines. Factory exhaust and intake gets better and better, chasing the aftermarket.

A simple example (there are tens of thousands) is the way Chevrolet was stopped from selling the Corvette with a 350 in California in 1980, due to California’s ludicrous smog laws. Chevy had to put 305 engines in the Vette. So they improved the exhaust slightly, and increased the air into the intake and got the 305 up to only 5 horsepower below the 350. In 81 the law changed, and they went back to using the 350. But they kept the better intake air flow and exhaust, and then the 350 made 20 more horsepower. Just from slightly improving the exhaust and intake. Note these were CCC computer controlled cars.

Anyone who has worked on improving performance on a computer controlled car knows that they respond very much the same as a carbureted car. They are not that much different as the basic air pump heat exchange engine is still the base.


Oh, and if you doubt this, you can test it yourself in a couple minutes.

To test to see if your computer will correct the air flow, simply open your air cleaner housing and use saran wrap or other clear plastic and cover the air filter element, say 50%. Then drive the truck and see how well it compensates.
Also, you can put a plug up the tail pipe, and constrict the exhaust to say, half and then drive the truck and see how much it compensates.

Please don't put proven technology like improved air flow and exhaust in with the snake oil.
Chris

 

Hey Blazin STX I live in Reston if you know where that is and I know a lot of people who go to a place called Trick Trucks. They are spread out all over the Northern VA, DC and Maryland areas. I have never been there but I heard they do great work and they know a lot about truck parts. I have seen some of the trucks they have done and they look pretty nice. So maybe give them a call and see what they think you should do

 

YEAH! Im in Reston alot! I know where trick trucks is, right by the new Costco in Chantilly. There are 1 out two places up that way that do those kinda mods. A little bit farther down the road (rte 50, right past the Pepsi plant and behind U-Haul) is Hi-Tech Performance or something like that. I went by TrickTrucks to get a quote on my Ez-Lift, they said $250-275 just for labor . (Ended up doing it myself) But im actually stopping by there this weekend to get a quote on welding up my Flowmaster Delta in place of the OEM muffler. The cheapest i found for the muffler to be installed is $85-160 labor. SO, as many of you can probably agree, thats a little extreme just for labor, and thats at the ma-n-pa shops too! Can anyone recommend anything else from this area???? DC Metro/WV, Maryland/Northern VA???

Blazin