Fine. Just as long as you realize "adults" at FORD designed & built our F150s & already decided in advance what components are used & how they're designed to function.

No doubt "choices" are good, when I made mine to post "I was basing it more on the" way FORD described their F150 front & rear CC system's function & purpose. On "looks"? Not so much, in fact "looks" didn't enter into it for me.

 

I don't get it... You have 315/75/16's on your truck with "stock gears".... 3.73 or 3.55?

Your tires are 3 inches bigger in diameter (or more depending on your stock size)... so you would have quite a bit less overall gear then a stock truck.

My truck came with 3.73's and 31.7" tall tires stock. If I were to put on tires that are 3 inches taller I would need at least a 4.30 gear to be back at same level as stock.

Or am I missing something?

 

Apperantly you are. A gear size doesnt change with a tire increase last time I checked. Power does, sure, but the gears are still the same gears. My truck came stock with 3.73's, which is still in there now. I could have 44's and still have stock gears. Your talking about being back in the stock RPM's and the stock powerband and I get what your saying, but It still doesnt change your gearing.

 

tire size is considered a final drive ratio. I strongly suggest stock size tires. Anyting over stock should consider gear mods, but thats not all; all chassis parts are compremised with oversize tires.

 

Ball joints, tierod ends, and sway bar links suffer form the added stress.

 

I never saw that one coming.

 

what happened to the cat thread..lol.

 

Curiosity musta killed it

 

No! Its wasn't "Curiosity" that "killed" the Topic.

It was "killed" by unfettered Off Topic derailing & personal attacks, combined with pervasive adversion to "Curiosity" that leads to pertinent facts.

 

That is about the most hypocritical statement I have yet seen on FTE. Priceless.

 

Wow, about all I gotta say!

 

In response to "what happened to the cat thread" I've got no regrets about my last On Topic statements back in #16 & 18 before the fatal hijacking. IMO genuine "Curiosity" about F150 cats would be nutured by my comments on the "single-bed" & "3-way" CC's.

Since then something else "musta killed it". IMO OT squabbling over; classic Harleys, oversized tires & excess ball joint wear are the most likely suspects.

Nobody else has posted on how front & rear CC's differ. You & crazy disagreed, I challenged both, offering what I believe is a better explanation. Real "Curiosity" would resolve, NOT kill it.

 

Yeah, sure....front and rear cats differ chemically, but not physically. That's what I was trying to get at in my earlier post. The only reason they are there is to help 'cleanse' the exhaust to keep the tree-huggers happy.

 

In the context of the Topic what's important is how the "cats differ" FUNCTIONALLY, which is what I posted. IMO their "looks....physically" have little bearing on the Q.

The Clean Air Act has been consistantly supported by over 70% of Americans. It lead to cats & the end of leaded gas. Most of the benefits were enjoyed by urban populations, who'd suffered the progressively sickening effects of SMOG for decades. The vast majority of Americans are "happy" the air is cleaner b/c of it. Even manufacturers who fought against cats are "happy....they are there". America is not alone in the world & most of our traditional allies & trading partners are "happy...to help 'cleanse' the exhaust". "The only reason" millions of city people have relatively Clean Air to breath most of the time is b/c catalytic converters, modern engine controls & reformulated fuels work together so effectively to radically reduce emissions.

IMO "tree-huggers" are a specialized group of environmentalists who fight against: Clear Cutting, cutting remnants of Old Growth Forest, timber subsidies/give aways on public lands, cutting critical habitat, etc. & as it relates to Air Pollution, Acid Rain killing high elevation forests. They promote planting trees, preserving Green Spaces, Sustainable Forestry, Wilderness Experience, etc. While I'm sure most "tree-huggers" are "happy" w/cats, Auto Emissions never seemed to their high priority. Most Acid Rain is blamed on sulfur emissions from coal burning power plants & of course coal mining destroys plenty of habitat.

A byproduct of the reasons they are there seems to be to keep 'Screw the Environment types' unhappy.

 

I had a glasspack stuck on. It's as close to a straight pipe as I can come but still looks like there's a muffler. I have an 02 and the cats are stock. I got my power bytuning the fuel and spark tables. It sounds good and if they want to start that emmission crap testing again I'll put it back to stock for the test. I have a wideband O2 installed to tune with. If you must do something with the cats get the Flowmaster performance ones. You can remove them but you have to get the kits that trick the O2 sensor ckt into thinking they're still there. My $.02.