First I'd like to introduce myself. MY name is Dave and I just recently purchased a tan 1997 Ford F150.

I'll admit I'm a bit of a redneck, so one of my first priorities with this truck is getting a new exhaust system to make it sound "badass". The engine is a 5.4 Liter V8. Does anyone have any suggestions as to manufacturers that make a quality product for an affordable price that'll really make my engine heard round the town?

The next thing on my list really has nothing to do with performance, but more to suit my exterior fancy. I'm not the biggest fan of the grilles on these F-150's, and I would have much rather preferred a 91-96 style grille, but had no real choice considering all trucks I found that looked like that were used as plow trucks, had hundreds of thousands of miles and were just plain beat up. I want a nice grille guard or bull guard for my truck, but I am having a hard time finding affordable 2WD grille guards. Does anyone have any sources for grille guards that aren't extremely expensive and are quality?

Also in the future I'd like to throw some more rugged tires on it and maybe a couple inches lift, but I'll save those questions for the future because I can't afford all these things at once.

Thanks for all the help!

 

i beleve westin makes a bull bar....nice stuff....also.....

www.randyellisdesign.com

he makes light bar for the 97-03 F-150 now....it's pretty cool

www.stylinconcept.com

they make some pretty cool grilles also......not positive about the link.....

good luck

 

 

www.ntwonline.com

www.wheelsforless.com

2 good sits for wheels and tires.....they have package deals you can't beat


in my galery is my truck....i put a 3 inch Performance Accessories body lift on it.....the tires are 305/70/16 ProComp X-terrains and i love'em....wheels are american racing mojave wheels with the bead lock rings.....tires i'd go to no smaller than 285/75/16 expecially if your lifting it.....body lift is much cheaper and for what your looking at i'd say it'll do fine.....i do some off roading with my truck and my body lift if ine with me.....150 bucks or 2 grand

i paid $1,450 shipped mounted balanced and ready to go for my set-up

 

I see, thanks for the help. Got another question for you...

You referenced the tire specifications like this: 305/70/16

I was looking at other tires other than Pro Comp, specifically Super Swamper, and their specs are like this: 33x12.50x16 for a certain tire.

One, what do those three numbers mean for the Pro Comp and what do the three numbers mean for Super Swamper?

 

ones in inches and one is in metric.......305 is the width of the tire......70.....70% of the 305 is the side wall height.....and 16 is size of wheel......a 305/70/16 is basically a 33/12.5/16 in inches.........the 33 is the heitht.....12.5 is width and 16 is rim width....

http://www.s-series.org/htm/calc/tiresizeconv.htm

thats a link i found that converts from metric to inches....


one thing about super swamper.....i went through all this a while ago.....they don't last long at all and they will be loud on the street....ultimatly it's up to you and what your using the truck for.....i'v found out that the baja claw radials and ProComp X-terrain are an aggressive tire for off road but not to bad on road either

 

Well, I'm not looking at Super Swampers as what I want to buy.. I don't really thinking I want to go through swamps with this truck and I don't think there are any swamps in suburban Chicago. I was just using Super Swamper as a reference to a tire that has different measuring systems. Thanks a lot for the help!

 

o, alright man.....good luck with the truck