CatBack...school me

[JohnnyO]

A 5.4L might see some benefit. Gibson is a highly regarded system and I know for my Ranger they rate greater increases for hp and torque with the single cat-back system than the dual.

 

[Steve S]

Schmoe Call the ford dealer Its really new. they are nice trucks they hold up .

[ December 24, 2003, 01:30 AM: Message edited by: Steve S ]

 

[Gary Allan]

quote:

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but if you go over to f150online and ford-truck.com's, a lot, I mean a lot of owners have said that they have noticed significant increases in hp and fuel economy when they installed shorty's and catbacks.

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What would you say if you just spent $400 on an exhaust system that was supposed to give you more hp and mpg???

Typically if it ain't there when you buy it ..anything bolt on isn't going to add much. Anything that has a CARB or 50 state certification does virtually nothing in the "real numbers" (fractional gains can be had at a very high $/hp ratio). Borla's own site shows that the hp gains on a 5.0 Mustang was something like 7-12 hp ..AT 6500 rpm. I don't know too many, other than street racers, that see that engine speed typically.

My local street racer mechanic really enjoys doing custom exhaust work. His favorite job is someone who wants left and right dual outlets on a pickup truck. Since all the tanks are interally frame mounted ..all the exhausts travel on the other side of the frame that the filler neck is on. They pay up to $500 for having those dual pipes exiting out the back like an old style dual exhaust.

Now I never get in the way of a man parting with his money

The Lord knows that I've done my share of wasteful spending just to "do it my way".

If your exhaust system is shot ..and you have some money burning a hole in your pocket ..go buy a Borla.

 

[Santo Fontana]

Wanna see results from bolt ons? Get something with forced induction.

 

[MNgopher]

As far as the blown plug thing, rest easy. I'd like to see an owners manual that asks for plug torque checks every 3k. Since it doesn;t exist, you'll have a hard time finding one.

Are there 5.4 and 6.8 engines that have blwon plugs? Yes.

At last check, it was affecting far, far less than .1% of the vehicles equipped with thee engines.

Relax!

 

[Gary Allan]

quote:

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Wanna see results from bolt ons? Get something with forced induction.

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Very true ..but you'll only see a handfull that are CARB or 50 state certified. Paxton has several ...@around $4000 each. For that, I'd pay the extra money for a car or truck with a more powerful engine (big block, diesel, HO, etc.).

There are not too many ways around the current "state of the art" in gasoline engines anyway ...and at any reasonable cost.

Some like larger throttle bodies. This just "simulates" more power. You're effectively reindexing the throttle geometry by giving a larger throttle opening for every mm of throttle application. You may see something a WOT ..but what good is that except at WOT? In cruise condition you are somewhat giving a different TPS output for a given MAP output ..so you will see some difference (good or bad

who knows).

Any exhaust is a fixed system. That is, it's going to be overcapacity at many states ..and under capacity in very few (WOT @ high rpm). This is not the era of 440 super commando Fury III versus the same thing in the normal single exhaust sedan where you can take a whole lot of advantage of a free flowing exhaust.

I think it was Car&Driver that did a riceburner shootout. They had a bunch of custom shop refitted 4 bangers (some as much as $38k in final price). The Dodge SRT beat them all for $20k. This proved that the best thing that these add ons did was fatten the vendors wallet and deflate the buyers