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So I own a 2011 F-150 5.0 V8 FX4. I recently talked with my uncle and he said I should run two pipes under the truck, one from each manifold, both with Catiylic Converters (or how ever the hell you spell it) and mufflers on both pipes. He said this should increase gas mileage and also make it real loud (depending on the mufflers). I was wondering if this is true and what are the pros and cons to this.
Your uncle was right in stating that you can make your truck considerably louder. You dont have to do a full dual pipe system unless you are thinking of doing other upgrades to utilize the extra flow. Otherwise save you money and get a Cat back system if you want a more aggressive sounding truck. Like David Jones said, you wont ever get enough fuel saving to cover the cost. And the HP gains (if any) will be unnoticeable with exhaust alone.
No fuel savings, you'll lose some low end torque, and you'll be significantly louder. See videos below of my '07 5.4 with that setup. Exact setup is in video description.
I dont know jack bout the modern 150s ( i really dont know much about any of them), but with my 87 5.0 i just put three different variations of exhaust systems on my truck ( i stick welded and fitted myself which is why i could play around with set ups). First was longtubes (LTs) with 2.25 " piping running down the passenger side with a X pipe after the trans crossmember, then small resonator, cherry bomb , and then terminating just past the rear axle. I felt like i had lost some low end like this.
Which then lead me to adding added a 2" stainless H pipe real real close to the LTs. I felt i gained some torque when i welded that H pipe as I could spin my wheels heaps better than before on dry road by just planting my foot (very scientific i know), plus it helped keep the exhaust hot; i could see that H pipe get real hot which was good for flow. The X pipe later on I felt really help it evacuate gasses at the higher rpms, as it just went right up to redline absolutely smooth as silk. It was only loud when I put my foot down and made a great sound real harmonic sound, a tuned kinda sound. Adding that H pipe actually brought the roughness out of the sound level and made it sound way better overall from what it was before with just an X pipe. At that point I also dumped it before the axle with turndowns. it was pretty sweet like this but i had this niggling about how the left side was longer cause of running both pipes down the passenger side (dual tanks) and i still found it a tad too quiet.
So then i redid it with the same 2.25 piping but now running down both sides in true dual fashion ( i dumped the midship tank), a 2" H pipe, no resonators, just the cherry bombs and a very short trumpet tip after the mufflers and terminating before the rear axle. This made a damm awesome, V8, loud, mean and roaring sound when I planted it; especially when it got up to 2500 and beyond. People on the street would turn around lol. It pulled hard at 2500-4500 but it struggled below that especially under light throttle. So driving it actually become hard in built up areas cause it just didnt like being at light throttle and low rpms (had some fun times though scarrying the f^&K outta people in yuppie city areas .) So I thought that the exhaust system was slightly too free flowing for my mild 87 5.0 and cause of having to drive alot in urban areas at light throttle and low rpms.
That lead me to reduce the diameter of exhaust to 2" about a foot after the H pipe. This actually helped a heap as now it does heaps better at lower ranges and it sound goods at lower ranges as well as higher. Just incase that wasnt clear now its 2.25 duals connected with a 2" H pipe at the trans crossmemeber then after about a foot reduces to 2" piping into 2" inner diameter steel old school cherry bombs and then dumped before the axle with turndowns at a 45 degree angle.
So my point after this essay of a post is that after all the experimenting I learnt that you need to match the exhaust system not only to your engine intake capability/output but also to the type of driving you do; as some exhaust setups will favour operating at different ranges with different perceived positives and negatives. But is it worth it running some form of duals? HELL YES! if only for that old school rumble sound its so worth it but make sure you design a system that is matched to your engine and driving conditions.
After all this stuffing around I learnt that there is such a thing as too big of an exhaust. as if this is the case you will fail to produce enough pressure in the pipes that creates the pressure gradient that exhausts need to move from an area of higher pressure (inside the pipes) to an area of lower pressure (outside the pipes also called atmospheric pressure) mostly at lower rpm ranges hence the loss of torque/low end. This wouldnt be an issue on the track where your mostly operating in higher the rpm ranges but on the street its not ideal. Its also interesting because it seems in the 60's 2" dual systems seemed to be more than enough for v8 platforms some of which that pushed out a respectable amount of power.
A true dual H-pipe exhaust would sound great on the 5.0L Coyote. No idea why the V8 trucks aren't true dual, other than that they don't want to make a separate exhaust for the V8 trucks. AFAIK, a 5.0L exhaust is identical to a 2.7EB and a 3.5EB. Not sure about the 3.5/3.3na.
In my past, I've owned a (brand new) 4th Gen Camaro Z28 and it a Y-pipe to a single 2.75" exhaust out to the back. The guys who did true H-pipe duals had much better sounding cars, although there was no proof of any performance gain over doing a 4" single exhaust (which was available and not uncommon).
09-22-2017, 01:34 PM
Dual pipes on a F-150
.) So I thought that the exhaust system was slightly too free flowing for my mild 87 5.0 and cause of having to drive alot in urban areas at light throttle and low rpms.
