Does any body know what the difference is in the exhaust between the two trucks? Why does a lightning sound so much better than my F-150 Supercrew 5.4L?

 

The exhaust is shorter exiting out of the front of the passenger tire. Not sure what kind of set up it is though.

 

Yeah but is that what gives it its great sound?

 

I spoke with a guy a few months ago that has a supercab 5.4 liter and it sounded like a lightning. He claims that the mufflers are flowmaster and all he did was shorten the tailpipe and make them come out in front of the rear wheel, looked just like a lightning exhaust. Dont know what makes them sound like that really, but I assume that it does indeed have a lot to do with the length of the tailpipe.

 

Length, shape, diameter of tubing, bends in tubing, mufflers, tips, they all contribute to the acoustics of the exhaust.

 

maybe the fact that it is a 400hp, supercharged 5.4l...

 

I was just curious as to why the lightning sounded better than my stock 5.4. I want to give it that rumble sound like the Dodge Hemi's have so I was going to put on some flowmasters. But my neighbor who has a regular 2001 Dodge pickup with the V-10 put on a 50 series Flowmaster and there is no difference between that and the stock muffler, what so ever? So now I am having second thoughts about the Flowmaster, maybe I'll put the 40 series on it instead or go with the Magnaflow. I can't remove the cats because I have an extended warranty on the truck and removing them will void the warranty but I want it sound kick ***, at idle and takeoff.

 

The 40 series has a nice rumble, not as loud as a Hemi though, because the Dodge doesn't have 4 cat conveters.
The Lightning muffler is probably alot smaller than the gas tank sized stocker on our trucks as well as having shorter tailpipes.
Also, the supercharger forces much more air thru the engine which will make it a bit louder too.

 

Get high flow cats, 40series, and a whipple charger and you'll be happy with the sound.

 

Do our trucks have 4 cat convertors or is 2 convertors and 2 resinators?

 

Think 4 cats. Mustangs used to have 6. The first one is usually a pre-burn one I think. I'm not sure but believe you can eliminate all 4 with an after market set-up of 2 highperformance cats and still be under warrenty but you may wanna check and make sure.

 

Removing a factory cat and replacing it with an aftermarket will not void any part of the warranty unless they can determine that the new cat caused the failure DIRECTLY.

You can remove the cats all together but doing so is AGAINST FEDERAL LAW. I do not suggest doing so. Most factory cats are pretty good in that they use a wire mesh lined with appropriate amounts of catalyst to burn the excess HC's.

They are not the cats of old that used a bb matrix, think of a cylinder with a buch of bb's in it and blowing through it. Now imagine blowing through your screen door. That is why the older cats would "burn up" or become "plugged".

However, going to today's freer flowing cats are bound to free up a few HP, but I feel the cost of a performance cat is not worth the 5rwp that it 'might' add. My money is better spent elsewhere.

 

Thats because the 50 series is the quietest muffler that Flowmaster makes. The 40 series will be much louder.

This winter sometime, I will be cutting out my cats and putting a 40 series with dual outlets and dual turndowns (or just not put anything after the muffler) underneth my truck. This might drown out my nasty exhaust leak at the manifolds until I get the money for some headers

 

How expensive are those high flow cats?