About a year after I bought the truck new I had a shop install a single 3" inlet/dual 2.5" outlet flowmaster 50 series deltaflow muffler. I was loving the sound, but after 3 years+ the interior noise was increasing. I assumed it was the guts of the muffler degrading, and the inlet/outlet flanges were looking very crusty.

So after getting my predator installed, and ordering my wideband so I can get the truck dialed in... I was finally ready to install my new exhaust setup. I don't know why no one makes a kit like what I put together. There is plenty of room; a number of ways to mount the muffler(s) and tip setups. I was tired of looking at that choked down thing the factory calls a "Y-Pipe". Who wold have ever though that 2- 2.25" pipes smashed together into 1- 2.75" pipe would flow well?

Anyway, I decided to go with some high flow cats (to keep the noise down), and run them into a magnaflow 2.5" X-Pipe, then into dual cutouts and finally dual flowmaster 40 series deltaflow mufflers. And! I used all stainless, except for what was left over the axles from the previous setup, because they were still in good shape.

Check out the pics and tell me what you think...

 

Awesome idea man we need some soundclips now. Bet it sounds damn good.

 

did you weld that up yourself? how much do you have into it? ive thought about doing my own, but i dont have a bender...
looks good tho... hows it sound??

 

Looks good. now those cutouts arent electronic right? are you going to like getting under the truck to unscrew the cutout? But other than that, good job!

 

im guessing he's thinking ahead... e-cutout future mod??

 

maybe not. just looking at the pics its hard to tell if there will be enough room for the ecutout. the mounting flange is about an inch thick then about an inch to inch and a half for the blade when its all the way open. great job though looks really good just need to hear it now.

 

Looks sick I wish someone would post a vid of the stainless changing color like that I'm sure it looks sweet.

 

I have not had anyone drive the truck so I can hear it from the outside for myself yet, but everyone tells me that it sounds mean, but not to raspy or obnoxious.
Any speed where the RPM range is 1600 to 1900 is the worst for interior resonance. Thats usually around 50 to 60 MPH. I can deal with it, nothing a little stereo volume can't fix.

My stepdad did most if not all the welding. But we did everything at home in the garage. As far as cost... I gringe at the thought because its all stainless. Lets see...
Mufflers= $80 each
X-pipe= $84
Cutouts= $46 each
cats= $100 each
stainless pipes, misc. bends and clamps $350

We didn't use a bender at all. We just cut the crossover pipe behind the T-case where it was straight, then added a 90deg bend. Then added some pipe to get it from 2.25" to the 2.5" to fit inside the X-Pipe.

I plan on putting the QTP electric cutouts on eventually (probably next summer). The reason their not on yet is because I didn't want to spend the extra money right now. Especially with winter coming in 2 months. After I get them on, I'll probably cap the cutouts every winter anyway.

I used the electronic cutout valve (same part number) from my car to clock the cutouts on the truck. This way when I get around to buying them, I'll be able to bolt them right up. I was getting a little worried as we were assembling all the exhaust with how the valves might mount, but I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. The mounting flange is less than a half inch stainless, and the cutout valve itself is about the same... plenty of room.

It doesn't take long for sure, once it gets hot. That would be a cool video.

I'll try to get a video soon. I've never posted anything on YouTube, so that'll be a first. I'd like to get a video of it on the dyno, but I called B&G and it sounded like the guy was trying to talk me out of it because "I don't have enough mods done..." Whatever, eventually I'll get on a dyno.

My mileage is also up my about 1 MPG, and the power band is different, allowing me to get better fuel economy at higher speeds. My best was 16mpg (highway) @70 MPH. Now I'm getting almost 17MPG at 75-80MPH. The truck seems lighter on its feet too. The revs get up easier and it the truck coasts farther than before. Must be because of the reduced back pressure.

 

Bending stainless is very hard. Takes special machinery. Most local shops won't touch stainless on the bender machine because it would break their machine or crush the stainless tubing.

My headers turned color all within 20 seconds after getting hot. it was pretty cool, but lasted....only 20 sec or so.

Going Dual Flowmaster is the way to go. A single one would have hurt you, but I think you've done everything right as far as putting a quality exhaust together. Bad a$$ bro. It's gotta sound sick other than the usual drone. Gotta post up a sound clip....please!

Awesome install. I can't wait to get my restrictive Y-pipe out. My dealership said that as long as I don't touch the cats, they would still cover any and all warranties, but after that, all i will have left are the stock cats...lol Catback and headers are new. Just not sure how I wanna go about it as there really isn'tmuch room up in there because of the harsh bends. looks like there will be welding on angles like you have done. What a PIA.

How long did it take you to fit everything together?

 

I couldn't find a single place around me that dealt with stainless exhaust. So I had to order all my tubing from SummitRacing. It's nice being right over the border from their main warehouse. I usually get everything the next day.

I originally was going to use dual 50 delta's, but my stepdad has dual 50's with an x-pipe on his 440 6 pack car and they are sooo quiet. I didn't want anything more quiet than I had already. So my brother talked me into dual 40 delta's since his Super 40's are not that loud with an x-pipe on his mustang.

You were saying something about all the bends and them being a PIA. This is why we only cut the original pipe on straight sections. This made it a lot easier. I just wish we had a TIG welder... oh well.

As far as the stock cats go, I went with something smaller in length and diameter. When comparing the two cats next to each other you can really see a difference. The interior of them has small square holes. The holes on the aftermarket cats are nearly twice as large as the stock ones. And it if matters to anyone, I went with metalic substrate cats because I've read that they last longer. I thought it was an 'ok' time to replace them since I'm approaching 80k miles and who's to say how long they'll make it after 100k.

We started working on it Sunday around 1pm and worked until about 8pm. Monday I had a day off, so we resumed around 11am to finish somewhere before 9pm. My stepdad is a perfectionist and so am I. I just wanted this to be the last setup for a while and I wanted it to look as professional as possible. I give credit for coming up with the custom hanger (rear of muffler) to him. All I remember about finishing, is opening the garage door with it being dark outside and pouring down rain. Not my ideal first run for my exhaust, specially on a muddy gravel road.