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Hi all. I'm looking for any advice/recommendations for repairs/replacement on my exhaust. I have an 02 Excursion 4X4 Ltd with the V-10. On my last trip, the tailpipe connection on the rear of the muffler gave out resulting in the tailpipe tip melting the lower lip of the cladding. My questions are, what do you recommend for new mufflers, I want a slight rumble, but not looking for the "open header" loud. Second, what are the pros/cons of removing the cat as I have seen some here do? Any other insight or suggestions are welcome also. Thanks in advance!
I'd leave the cat alone as you will likely not pass inspection without it. As far as the muffler I have a FM70 big block 2 muffler on my truck and really like it. Only downfall to the steel flowmasters is they tend to rust out quickly especially in a harsh winter enviroment. You may be better off going with one of the largest (around 30" case length) XL turbo style mufflers from Magnaflow, which are stainless.
Thanks, dkf, reps sent! As far as the cat goes, I don't have to pass any inspections here, so is there any harm to the truck to run without a cat? I'm just trying to avoid doing the muffler, then have to deal with the cat later if it starts going bad. I really don't want to spend too much $$$ on the exhaust as I am also in need of all four ball joints and both tie rod ends.
Having no cat isn't really going to hurt your truck but Ford (and 5 star) tuned the vehicle with the cat in mind. Even if you don't have emissions inspections or state inspections removing the cat violates Federal law so you would be vulnerable to possible fines if caught with no cat. The cat can easily be replaced yourself or by a competent muffler shop in the future.
I would just replace the muffler and put the other money towards your ball joints. BTW I recommend getting replacement ball joints with grease fittings.
I did not realize removing the cat was ILLEGAL! I guess that takes care of that! As for the ball joints, I am going with the greaseable ball joints. It looks as if my old ball joints are the factory originals. I am surprised they lasted 159,000 miles from the sounds of others I have known, the most I've heard about is about 100,000 on the originals.
My dad got like 62k or 68k out of his original ball joints in his CC. Hopefully I can at least make it to 60k before I need some, if they last 150k that would be great.
I am assuming mine are original as they have no grease zerks, and the dealer claims they are original, but they may have been replaced before I bought it.
I have a thread about "Funky exhaust noise" with a video clip - I put the largest 3" center-offset oval magnaflow I could buy, and really like it - not a whole lot louder than stock, even QUIETER on the highway (go figure) with a nice deep rumble at idle through say, 1500RPMs. Of course, that's with ebay headers and ebay y-pipe, but the exhaust didn't change much with the stock muffler and those add-ons, so I don't think it'll differ much from my results.
And, by the way, the reason I went with the magnaflow was it's stainless. I hate replacing exhaust
I really like my Stainless Steel Banks Monster single exit. You can get an idea by following the link in my sig. That muffler just makes the V10 sound evil. I also have the TorqueTubes and the Y-Pipe, so that might change things a bit.