Hi everyone, first post.

I recently picked up an '05 F250 super cab w/ a 5.4. As of yesterday, it was bone stock. I believe my spending $$ on car modification days are behind me but the stock muffler just had to go. I didn't want anything crazy loud outside and inside I didn't want a bad drone. I did a ton of research on this and other forums regarding different exhaust setups. It seemed that the 2 most popular were the flowmaster and the magnaflow.

At first I had a flowmaster 40 series delta flow installed. I read many posts saying the 40's give a bad 1800 rpm drone but I found a few that said as long as the cats were in place, which mine are, it wasn't bad at all. Plus this 40 was a delta flow, supposedly less interior noise than the reg 40's. Out came the stocker and in went the flowmaster. Surprise!....it had a wicked drone. It drove me absolutely nuts on the 35 minute ride home. Back and forth...tourque converter locked then unlocked over and over again. Aside from the drone it had the typical nice open flowmaster sound. Fairly loud outside but definately not the muff you'd want to have if you needed "stealth mode" around a cop. As soon as I got home I called the shop and told them I needed to try something else.

Back to the muffler shop and 30 minutes later a 24" Magnaflow was in place of the flowmaster. I kinda got nervous because the people here seem to recommend the 14" or 18". I thought it would be too quiet but I was wrong. It actually isn't too much quiter than the f-master HOWEVER the interior drone is still very pronounced. I'd say 75% of what the flowmaster was. I like the overall sound of the Magnaflow better. It has more of a bassy fiberglass packing sound, basically like a dynomax turbo muff or something. The Flowmaster was aluminized where as the Magnaflow is stainless so I still have that warm and fuzzy feeling an all stainless exhaust gives you.

Overall I'm happier with the Magnaflow as it drones less but it's still quite obnoxious. I've spent waaay too much $ on this muff swap already but if the shop called and offered to change it out again for only 20-30 bucks, I'd do it.

I like a nice exhaust tone, inside and out, like the next guy but this muff has the potential to get irritating. From what I've read here, nobody seems to have a drone problem with their M-flow but I think most have the shorter ones.....although it would seem more packing = less noise.

As far as power improvements, I didn't notice any.

Any ideas, comments or questions?.....

 

well i have the 2v 5.4, and here a couple months ago i was in your boat; hours of research and reviews for just the right sound... and it sounds like we wanted the same thing.

i ended up going with Magnaflow myself, but i got a Magnaflow XL, which is a 3 chamber design (which i didnt't know at the time). from what i read the straight-thru designed magnaflows were the way to go. nonetheless, i've been pretty happy with my 18" SI/SO aluminized magnaflow. i also replaced the catylitic converter with a magnaflow unit, a small universal one.

i have no drone whatsoever at cruising speed, it's actually louder than i wanted under light and moderate acceleration (which grew on me), but my only gripe is the "gurgliness" under light acceleration, the kind of in-a-bowl-of-water-type noise (i wish i could describe it better, lol). is yours like this? yours being stainless, i'm sure you have the straight-thru design i mentioned, so probably not.

also what are you running for a tailpipe? the stock one? i'm running all stock 3" pipiing with a 12" long 4" diameter tip.

 

number2 -- What did you want to gain by changing the stock OEM muffler? The '05+ exhaust systems on the 5.4L and V10 are very well engineered...especially compared to years past.

If you want a bit more sound without the drone, then the straight through design is not what you want. I would recommend the FM 70 series...get some more sound (it is almost OEM, but with the signature FM sound), but no drone.

Good luck...

biz

 

I put on the Flowmaster Force II cat back system and love it. It has the 70 series muffler and I don't found it to be too loud or obnoxious. Go to Flowmasters website and listen to them if that will help.

 

Sounds to me like you should have just kept the stock one on there. If the 24" magnaflow has too much drone for you, I'm not sure you're going to be happy with much else. I have the 18", 3" in, dual 2.5" through 3.5" x 18" tips. I chose the magnaflow because the flowmaster never was my taste, nor gibson. It's like stock in the cab as far as I can remember and it sounds better outside. I changed mine out for the look of the dual tips and because I felt the stock sound was a drone whether you were inside, outside, above, under, whatever... I just didn't like it. Regardless, I hope you find something you're happy with in the near future without spending too much more.

Best of luck.

 

I just put a Flowmaster origional 40 on my SD with a single out the side just in front of the rear wheel. I get absolutely no drone what so ever. It is actually not loud inside or outside the truck. I was dissapointed as it was that quiet.

 

Thanks for the comments so far. bbender85, you said you replaced your cat with a Magnaflow unit? Was your cat directly in front of your muffler? We have different year trucks but mine has 2 cats located up closer to the engine. My exhaust guy commented that my truck looked like it should have had a cat directly in front of the muff but instead had a factory test pipe looking piece. He said it was definitely a stock piece but he was kind of curious. Again, prolly the difference in model years.

My exhaust is bone stock other than the new muff. 3" stainless with stock tailpipe. What I wanted to gain was a nice V8 sound coming from the tailpipe. I wanted to hear it in the cab obviously but I didn't want any ear fatiguing drone. Dont get me wrong, the Magnaflow sounds sweet but I was definitely not expecting as much drone. Perhaps a 70 series flowmaster was the way to go. I did call Flowmaster to see if they had a cat back kit for the '05 but the tech dude said "no". His listing for the f250 went up to '04. I asked him if it would work on the '05 and he said he couldn't say for sure.

Sounds like maybe a different diameter tip may remedy the situation. Biz4two, mine is not really gurguly during light accelleration. To me, a Flowmaster sounds kind of gurguly but it's a good open sounding gurgle.

I guess I didn't write it before but I really like the Magnaflows sound, especially under a decent amount of gas. It's loud but not too loud and it does have "stealth mode" capability. I think it's just the overall lack of power (heavy truck) and loose converter that makes the drone more bothersome. I may look into some sort of programmer to improve the drivability. I used a hypertech power programmer on a '96 impala ss and I loved it. It made a HUGE difference in everyday drivability and greatly improved the transmissions feel. Felt like 85% of a shift kit.

I'll keep you posted. Thanks again for the info

 

The first one is a pre-converter. Both can be removed and legally replaced with a free flowing aftermarket catalytic converter.

 

I put a Gibson SI/SO on my V10...sounded like crap and low my low end torque...a real problem for towing a 5th wheel....


Had the original muffler put back on, but had a "Y" pipe welded on behind the stock muffler and ran twin tailpipes with stainless tips out the back...looks great and quiet as a mouse. so, I got the look, but no noise. Of course, the V10 sound goofy no matter what muffler is installed....

 

number2, yeah i only had one large cat a few feet in front of the muffler, right under the cab. i wondered if the new cat i got would flow as much as the stock unit, as it was considerably smaller, but the shop owner that put it on assured me it would.

do you know if you have a straight-thru magnaflow or not?

 

bbender85, it's a straight-thru style.