Hi Wally,VERY nice mod on cross member.

Leo

 

One thing to remember is that if "UNLEADED FUEL ONLY" is posted anwhere on the truck ie next to the fuel guage or the filler tube by the gas tank you need a catalytic converter. 1978 was kind of a gray area for cats and perhaps the exhaust shop isnt sure what they can or cant do to the exhaust and that is why they shy away from it. Other than that there is no real reason why they shouldnt be able to custom fab some pipes. Id shop around and fins a shop that knows what they are doing.

 

call around. i lived in rhode island before moving down south. there were TONS of exhaust shops to do custom work. my friend had a 98 4 cyl. ranger and wanted dual outlet system. he had it done for next to nothing.

 

300ForMe, I have basicly the same situation with my 79F150, 351M, 2WD. I posted the same question in the exhaust forum and didn't get much other than what I already thought of doing, which is fabbing my own, either from a kit or pieces. I have seen dual exhausts offered that run down the passenger side, but that is not what I was looking for. I don't have the side fuel tank and wanted the stock exit behind the rear wheels. Here in Rhode Island vehicles that are over 25 years old are not compelled to pass the emissions test.

 

LMC sells two different style dual exhaust kits, both with options like rear or stock exit and turbo or glass-pack style mufflers. The style I got was designed for trucks with the side fuel tank and I opted for turbo mufflers and the tail pipes exit behind both rear tires. The second style kit is for trucks with out the side gas tank and you also have the choice of mufflers and exit locations. I know LMC is a bad word around here, but I was not able to find any other vendor that offered a dual exhaust kit for truck setup like mine w/ the side gas tank. I think you may have other choices w/o the side gas tank, but I think all will require a little fabrication work to make it work. I also wanted to stick with my stock exhaust manifolds for reduced underhood heat and to avoid the problems associated with headers. Besides I am not trying to build a race truck, but a dependable daily driver.

 

cujo8, I have one of their catalogs in front of me now, they offer the configuration I want, but not for the 351M/400. I've looked through all these catalogs for many hours. It is time to stop procrastinating I reckon. I will just have to fabricate from the manifolds where necessary. I want to keep those too, headers will just cause more trouble than what I would gain. I don't carry a spare tire and bracket under the truck either. Pulling a spare tire from under there once, on a 73 I had, was enough for me. I like those photos.

 

Buzzman, I had not noticed that they state there straight back design was for 73-76 trucks w/ all V8's except 302. I would not think that your 78 would be much different than say a 76. There may have been an exhaust manifold change after 76 or possibly different style cross members. The kit I bought was supposed to fit my truck w/o modification, but as I stated before I had to modify the down-pipes quite a bit to make them fit and I had to purchase later model exhaust manifolds to get the ball mount flanges I needed to match up the down-pipe mating surfaces. I also had to modify and reuse the mounting flanges that were originally on my Y-pipe to mount the new down-pipes. I would not have had to modify the flanges if I had not had to buy the new exhaust manifolds. The new exhaust manifolds had a wider bolt spacing than my old manifolds, so I cut off the "ears" on my old flange connectors and welded on bigger "ears" and then redrilled the holes for the mounting studs.
If you already have the ball mount flanges on your exhaust manifolds, you may be able to use the LMC kit w/ some modifications. Maybe since my kit was supposed to fit w/o modification their kit that is not supposed to fit will indeed fit w/o modification Good luck with your exhaust project.