Homemade 5.0 Dual Exhaust Pics

[Nick26]

When I did my transmission swap to a manual I took out the old factory exhaust. It wasn't really necessary to remove it, it would have fit, but I knew I wanted a dual setup at some point so it was a bonus to do it then so I had more room.

So to build my homemade catback kit, I started with a 2.5" dual in dual out Super 40 flowmaster muffler. BTW their customer service is excellent and I know some people get sick of hearing the flowmaster sound all the time but it's my favorite, especially on a 5.0.

So here is pictures of the muffler, the plate I made from a piece of flat steel (I didn't have the plate from the factory pipe anymore). I recommend going to the scrap yard for this, it was was a PITA to make this piece unless you have better tools for it then me (I used drill bits, a hole saw, and jigsaw). Then you can see how I welded the pipes to the plate, the inlet spacing on the muffler was slightly wider then the output of the explorer 5.0 cat pipe so I angled them slightly and it worked out well.

 

[Nick26]

Then it came to making the pipes. So i got a bunch of 45's from this site(best price and fast shipping): http://www.mandrelexhaustsystems.com/

Then I stuck them together with some straight pipe pieces i got from autozone and started cutting them and mocking it up using coat hangers.

 

[Nick26]

Once they were all tacked how I like them for good clearance I pulled them up and welded them all the way around. Then I put them back on to figure out the angle for the tips and hanger locations, tacked them on, and took them out to weld them all the way around.

 

[Nick26]

Once tips were on I slid old socks over them and spray painted the whole rest of the pipe with rustoleum high heat black spray paint, which doesn't seem to be very durable at all and scratches off with a finger nail, but it't good enough.

I got my stainless steel tips here for like $31 for the pair shipped: http://www.mandrelexhaustsystems.com/

So far they have yet to show any signs of corrosion and seem pretty good quality. The clearance over the driveshaft tapped a little bit at first when the springs are fully compressed(like when I hit a speed bump), but that seems to have worked itself out now. Other then that I managed to make it clear pretty well using just rubber hangers from autozone.

And here are pictures of the final product....

 

[Xplorer82]

that is worth a . good job.

 

[Mountaineer1113]

That's pretty slick! Very nice job.

I had a flange made to bolt up to the back cats as well but decided to ditch them since they're not necessary.

 

[Nick26]

I'm selling this "kit" I made for $125 if anyone with a V8 wants it. I can't guarantee fitment on a stock height truck but the dual-in/out flowmaster muffler piece is easily worth that alone and would give you a good start if you wanted to make your own or if you didn't use the tail pipes it sounds pretty mean. The pipes obviously now have a bit more rust on them then in the pictures since everything was new then, but are still solid and can be cleaned and painted pretty easily.

 

[Sams01XplrSprt]

lookin good u got sound clip

 

[StryctNy9e]

Nice custom setup, me likey!