Well my muffler and cat was too quiet and my muffler by itself was a little too ricey and my cat by itself was too ricey so I up and unbolted my half-assed "custom cat delete" made out of a piece of pipe, some adapters, and some exhaust clamps I got from Napa and took an old piece of fencepost or something and cut and welded it into and angled tail pipe type thing in such a way that it dumps out right in front of the rear tire on the passenger's side. No cats, no muffs, no glasspacks. The whole thing is 2.25 inch, and it's a single from a stock carb'd log manifold. I was wondering if this might adversely affect my torque, gas milage, and overall engine performance. Do I really need more backpressure? Will I burn a valve? Any info on this is helpful. I've "heard" all kinds
of things about exhaust before, but I'm pretty confident I can get some better information from the guys here on FTE....

 

It Shouldn't Ive Had my old F-250 Straight piped for awhile. But you might want to put a Glasspack on it to have some back pressure, After all you dont want to burn a valve or mess up your head and or other things. Mine is has a Glasspack on it now and it really doesn't effect the gas mileage or Power at all, Infact after i got the muffler and cat off it added power. and Putting a glasspack wont Mess with your sound that much it will just make it finer sounding and not as crappy as a straight pipe does, but its up to you buck.

 

what kind of milage do you get? I bet your cat was clogged before you cut it out of there...

 

Hey Bud. I could write and write and write about what works and what doesn't, but I won't bother. For one, you don't want to read something THAT long, and secondly, it's not that important. lol! I'll just condense this and give you a thought or two.

I've done a lot of things to my exhaust system, short of bolting on headers. I have the factory manifolds. Is is my suggestion to you to run a FULL LENGTH 2.25'' tailpipe. You do NOT need BACKPRESURE, but you do need scavenging.

Like I said I could write and write and write about all the things I've learned just from messing with it all but it's not that important. All I will say is the rule of thumb for performance is a single 2.25'' pipe, free flowing. If you want to make it a bit more quiet, get a short perforated Thrush glass pack.

Again, the main idea is to keep the piping narrow to create a scavenging affect and keep the piping full length (for the same reason).

All of that aside, what do you think of the sound of your truck? Sound like a tractor?

 

yes!!! and I likey that hot rodded tractor sound. I ran it just around the property with just a downpipe dumping out under the cab before, and like it, but it wasn't until today that I finally straight piped it again but also made a pipe to pipe it out from under the truck. I would like to run a full length exhaust, but i don't want to cut my muffler out of the rest of my exhaust. I have it rigged so that for now when I want it loud, i can run my side dump-out straight pipe, but when I want to be guiet i can hook my full length exhaust with a stock replacement mufffler back up. I'm thinkin about getting a cheapo summit turbo muffler for like 17 bucks. what do you think? I don't plan to run any cats on this truck again, and the short straight pipe is really only for until I get a better (louder) muffler. And i really want some EFI manifolds!!! Then I might take the exhaust from another truck with the same diameter piping and ghetto rig up some true duals! I'm just to cheap to pay like 150 bucks for a dual exhaust kit when I have a sawsall, a MIG welder, and a little imagination!

 

My friend, I cannot tell you what to do, but it is my personal opinion that a short glasspack is the way to go. Just because it's cheap does not mean it sounds bad. The best set up I ever had on my truck was both factory cats and dual short 'packs. Just save yourself some cash and buy a short (12 to 24 inch long) glass pack!

Can you get a sound clip for me? I would love to hear your truck!! You'll notice people's heads turn when you drive thru town. These things sound so much like tractor's, it's nuts!

 

Yes!!! yess!! yes!! I love when trucks are uncorked! gets me all worked up just thinkin about it!! I don't know about a sound clip. I could try I suppose. I don't think something will sound bad cause it's cheap. thats why i said, 17 dollar summit turbo muff.

Yeah, I love the tractor sound of the I6. but they can sound ricey so easy. with the wrong muffler or a cat. bleh. gotta have the right exhaust gear.

ol greyghost oughtta show up here soon and we can make this another one of our chat threads as well as an exhaust thread!!!!

 

You're right, you can make the 300 sound like a 4-banger real easy. You have to have the right gear!

I'm off to bed. Good night to you and Mr. Darrell!!

 

damn it. now who am I gonna talk to? I think darrel went to bed too.

 

Hey, us old timers need our beauty sleep! hahaha

 

I went out this morning and fired my truck up just to hear it. I love that sound. I will see if I can score a glasspack from one of my buddies this week, unless I can find a real cheap one on the shelf at a parts store. Definately though in the long run it will be a full all-the-way-back system, possibly with duals. I could make my own duals easy, and I found that napa has the tail pipes with the bend that goes up and over the rear axle for 30 bucks, and I've found X-pipes for cheap also. Duals might be doable afterall!!!

 

Yeah the only thing i got on my truck now is a glasspack and a tube out of that i need to get it behind the axle just aint had the time. But yea the 300 sounds nasty goin down the road dont it?

 

Have you thought about headers? My advice to you, IF you plan on upgrading your manifold, is not to put on the EFI dual manifolds. I say screw that man. If you're going to do the work, bolt on a good set of headers. From there I'd run true duals, 2 inch pipe, 24'' glasspacks.

By the way my friend, I ran a 31 inch pack before. It was really quiet. Try not to go any longer than you have to, if you like it loud. 12'' is the shortest.

 

Yep, I'm listening! I'll be doing the exhaust soon. I've had this conversation with Bill before. I still laugh when I remember him saying that if I did the exhaust a certain way it would sound like a bumble bee!!

Anyway, I have 2.25" pipe back to where the old round 390 muffler sits. At the trans I will chop into the existing, and swap in the two 24" glass packs, and then run the pipe out the back, behind the rear wheels.

I hope that will sound nice and 'throaty', but still be resonably quiet in the cab? What do you think? It's coming off a dual out Hedman header.

 

Hello my friend!

I think it will sound awesome! And you will be SURPRISED at how nice and quiet it is in the cab. I love glasspacks - they pull all sound away from the cab when you run tailpipes. Your ride will sound nice and quiet in your cab when you're cruising around!

By the way, and this is just my OPINION, but I think 300's sound best when they are not true-dualled. Just my opinion! I don't even like the sound of a V8 with true duals. So... Just do your research. I hate to see people put all this money into an exhaust system only to be disapointed. Everyone likes different things. Just research, talk, YouTube, and use common sense.