1999 Mounty 5.0 aka My Great Bad Idea

[CDW6212R]

Ditto to that Jamie, I prefer a real fuel tank skid plate to protect that. I saved both from my old 93 and a short 99 version I got with a fuel tank($75 for all of it to get just the pump(stores didn't have a pump in stock)).

 

[97Sandbox]

Finally made some little 1" spacers and I have a good 1/2" or so of clearance to the transfer case and the exhaust.

The long M8 bolts for the AWD front dive shaft CV work great!

 

[DintDobbs]

That will be fine for now, but in my opinion it would be a good idea to use some thing closer to the mounting surface size and shape (even if it's just a wood block cut and drilled to fit) so that way the part of the skid plate surrounding the mounting bolt holes doesn't take all the stress in the event that you actually need to rely on it.

I've thrashed the bottom of my Sport enough to know that the weakest link of any chain is always the one that breaks...

 

[97Sandbox]

Two pieces of 1" square tubing would work well. I'm not too worried right now though. The unfortunate truth with these 5.0 trucks is that the driver's side cat and downpipe are the lowest hanging parts in the front/middle of the vehicle. If I ever scraped this skid plate on anything, I probably would have already destroyed my downpipe.

 

[CDW6212R]

How about using that 1" square tubing as a long piece along each side? Then it's more stable at the same thickness, and use larger bolts than the 8mm things. I don't know yet which TC I will use, I lean to the AWD if I can make it work with my engine and trans.

I had my cats replaced last year, they located the left one higher than the original, it's tucked up a little better than it was.

 

[97Sandbox]

How about using that 1" square tubing as a long piece along each side?

Yes, that's what I had in mind.

When I did my custom cat-back setup, I was able to rotate the driver's side downpipe and get the cat up higher, but the downpipe section after the cat still hangs pretty low.

It's a tight squeeze to get two 2-1/4" pipes alongside the transmission and between the floor and crossmember. There's also hangers and O2 sensors sticking out which make it particularly hard to install everything. I think I had to sneak the downpipes in before I put the crossmember back. All of that stuff had to be modified when I did the M5R2 swap. At least there's no more trans cooler lines to work around now!

 

[CDW6212R]

Phht, I read it but didn't "see" it.

I got a good look at the space there on the right of the trans when I was loosening the bolts before having he cats changed. It is very tight in there, I think the two pipes will have to be above and below each other, with the cats close to where they are stock. Happily the rear cats unbolt and do nothing, so forget about those in future upgrades.

 

[410Fortune]

I hate the factory downpipes blah
You have to center them on the header ball flange so it doesn’t leak (tick tick tick) and when you do that, the stupid pipe hangs waaaay down. And the other cat is right under the rear main seal and converter… more blah!

So happy to finally be building trucks without them.. tuned PCMs with the cat monitors deleted and no cats in the downpipes!
I really like the exhaust in the 07 ranger it was tucked up high and true duals with crossover