it's "know it all"
I know on my 03 Cobra motor at 500 rear wheel horsepower adding headers was pretty much a waste. The stock log style manifolds worked perfecty fine with a 2.5 in mid pipe high flow cats and 2.5 in mandrel bent tubing. All these guys kepts wanting 3in exhaust and headers which just didn't help much at all unless they got over 600 rear wheel horsepower. I doubt many of these sport tracs are shootng for those numbers. Difference is though those cars are supercharged by a positive displacement blower. So on our trucks with no power adder would they should benefit from any types of after market exhaust once tuned properly correct ? I really want to dual my trruck out with some custom cut up +05 Mustang take off exhaust. I'd go with headers but to my knowledge there aren't any longtubes for the +07 V8 ST's :thumbdwn:
anyway the point of the thread was to compare the stock single exhaust or any aftermarket single exhaust for these trucks to a custom dual set up. I just wondered if converting to duals was worth it powerwise for the money.
Also it has been my expierence that making several changes to a car that the ECU can only do so much with 02 sensors, MAF, TPS, etc... at some point it has to be custom tuned to get the a/f right unless you dont't mind running on the ragged edge with a possible bad lean condition. I do agree that most vehicles wont see the full beneft of mods including exhaust done with out custom dyno tuning. I've had several Mustangs and a Ford truck dyno tuned. All ran better and picked up a good amount of power and the a/f ratios were dead on and safe for the engine.
Yea I was on my iphone. I figured I'd mispelled a few words, oh well.
You are correct for the most part. It all depends on the vehicle. On my 04 Mach 1, my car picked up 10 rwhp alone from going to new Kooks long tubes from dented, worn out Hooker long tubes. The total gain from long tubes on that car was in the 20-25 rwhp range. I'm betting the higher compression motor had a lot to do with it.
However, on my 01 Lightning w/ 14#, I gained 12 rwhp at most going to long tubes with high flows and a tune. I bet the tune contributed to half of that gain.
I don't know a whole lot about this truck yet, as I haven't even picked mine up yet. I've been research and am currently working a deal on an 08 limited CPO w/ the v8. There's absolutely NO reason for this truck to have more than a 2.5" exhaust. There DEFINITELY is too much for this truck, especially with an otherwise stock motor. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that when going duals, it would benefit more from a 2.25" pipe, unless the duals is only after the muffler. There's a reason Ford went with single for this truck, and it isn't all for the purpose of keeping the decibels down. Does anyone know what the compression is compared to the motors in the Mustang? If this truck had the EXACT motor that was in the Mustang, then it would definitely benefit from a dual exhaust. It's like the hard core s2000 guys that go from duals to a single exhaust, because it makes slightly more hp AND tq, compared to aftermarket duals. There is something about this motor that makes it benefit from the single exhaust, performance-wise. It would not have taken more effort than lifting a finger for a Ford engineer to get dual exhaust on the truck, if they saw the benefit.
BTW, MOST vehicles certainly would benefit from an aftermarket tune. But like I said earlier, that's not ALWAYS true for an otherwise bone stock vehicle. It seems like I read somewhere that this truck runs on regular fuel, is that correct? If so, the truck would definitely benefit from a 93 octane tune along with a little exhaust work. I guarantee the truck does not need headers. I'm betting the ability to use regular fuel means the compression is lower in this truck than the Mustang. All of these factors contribute to why this truck won't see the same kind of gains that the similar motor'd Mustang does with the same mods. It seems to me that the only similarity between the two is the size of the motor. Ford has had what, 6-7 different 4.6's, none of which were the same at all internally?
That said, can a 3V Mustang upper intake manifold be swapped onto these, or is there a hood clearance issue? I bet a stock manifold can be had pretty cheap. Also, I'm wondering if this truck would see better all around performance from a 4V mach 1 motor compared to the F150 3V 5.4. It's lighter, revs higher, and will respond to mods better, short of a blower/turbo. Less weight in the front will keep the handling in check, and will also take less effort to get the truck moving = less strain on drivetrain.
I kid I kid. 
. Wouold be interesting to see a mustang intake manifold swapped onto a sport trac if they are in fact any different ???? I was a 2V nut with my 708 RWHP 2000 GT then a 4V nut with my 98 Cobra with blown 04 engine, but 3V's are new to me. I think Ford used single exhaust to save build cost and ease of exhaust design with the IRS. Or quietness, or emmisions there's a reason for it and it wasn't a good one for performance reasons. I want to put a stock take off +05 mustang exhaust on my truck. I'd be happy if it sounded like a stock +05. If it's too quiet I'd want to go with a x pipe and Magnaflow mufflers (the quieter ones).
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