Catted magnaflow X pipe vs mid pipe w/stock cats?

[FastRedPonyCar]

I just sent John at Lethal a PM asking him some questions about this but I figured I'd also ask everyone else their thoughts on this in case anyone has any experience with these products.

Basically I have the GT500 axlebacks right now and I want a bit more sound from the exhaust but don't want to sacrifice the civilized and quiet ride when I'm not getting on it. As little highway drone as possible (ideally none) @ 75mph is really the target. I want the exhaust quiet when cruising and right now, it's virtually inaudible which is nice but like I mentioned, it's just still a little too quiet under moderate to heavy throttle and I want to change that.

Magnaflow has 3 convenient choices here and based on that, I'm wondering if anyone has any dyno results or just butt dyno impressions of these 3 x pipes.

I know that the off road x will require a tune and I'm also assuming (based on prior experience with my 97 GT and offroad pipes) that it will be louder than I want so I'm kinda marking that one off the list which leads me to the other 2 pipes.

The massive price difference between the two is a bit dis heartening and it makes me truly wonder what the power difference is between the stock cats and their slip on x pipe and the full race cat x pipe.

Are the stock cats THAT restrictive or did ford do us a solid and give us decent flowing stock cats? Or more specifically, if the race cat magnaflow x pipe makes more power than the stock cats w/magnaflow slip on x pipe, is it REALLY worth over $400 more? I just don't see how to be honest. For that money, I'd rather just dump a bit more into long tubes but I'm really not interested in that at the moment right now.

 

[byeofcr]

damn man wish i new the ansnwer but im curious as well.. sub'n..

 

[mustang_guy]

Subscribing

 

[351inside]

Well you can delete the resonators, that might get you the sound you want and it only cost about 50 buks at any muffler shop to do so...

I have a.magnaflow off road xpipe, deleted resonators, and gt500ab..

Its not loud at all and cruising at 70, its a nice tone, not loud at all...

 

[Onefstpny]

I just removed my O/R H because it made my car so loud that it was annoying plus the smell of raw fuel would Damn near kill the grass. I'm going to try the Ford Racing mid pipe just increase the sound a little and if it makes 3-5 rwhp that would only be a bonus.

 

[Carbd86GT]

If you keep the stock cats and just replace the stock H section with an aftermarket H/X, you're not going to increase the sound at all, you're just going to change the tone a big, the actual dB level should be unchanged. If you want to increase sound but not get too crazy, you're going to want to go with the X pipe with high flow cats.

 

[Strpperpolef150]

Is the only benefit for getting high flow cats to pass emissions? You still have to put a tune on the car so techinically you could still run into warranty issues. I'm debating between o/r x and catted x. I don't care about emissions and have a friend that works at the dealer so warranty shouldn't be an issue.

 

[kona12]

heartthrob has the stock replacement piping keepin the stock catts and it bolts up all the way to ur axel back. the best part is that its 3"..and its inexpensive. thinkin of goin this route

 

[Sosick]

I'm curious too. My local speed shop tried to sell me the after cat x...

 

[SicShelby09]

Why not just leave the factory cats and H pipe alone, and cut off those mid exhaust resonators?? Im sure that doing that with the stock cats and stock mufflers would result in better sound without having to do much. A muffler shop would be able to handle cutting those things out and welding in some pipe. Then you get to keep your cats, and get a little better sound.

 

[Sosick]

Why not just leave the factory cats and H pipe alone, and cut off those mid exhaust resonators?? Im sure that doing that with the stock cats and stock mufflers would result in better sound without having to do much. A muffler shop would be able to handle cutting those things out and welding in some pipe. Then you get to keep your cats, and get a little better sound.

I just got the gt500 axle backs last week. I'm probably going to get my resonators removed as well but when listening to a friends bone stock car with them removed all it did was make it raspy. I am considering an off road h later and I'm thinking with the resonators removed it may be too loud...

 

[SicShelby09]

I just got the gt500 axle backs last week. I'm probably going to get my resonators removed as well but when listening to a friends bone stock car with them removed all it did was make it raspy. I am considering an off road h later and I'm thinking with the resonators removed it may be too loud...

Its going to be worse with a highflow midpipe or no cats.

 

[Sosick]

so you are basically saying if I plan to do an h or x don't remove the resonators?

 

[cobra1718]

When I can I will post a vid. I have the gt500 mufflers and just had the resonators cut out. It increased the volume some and sounds great but still not that loud. You might like the sound