Exhaust system
 

Hello,
I have just got an almost new (6,500 mi.) 2002 Mustang GT and I want to put a new exhaust system on it so it has better horsepower and it sounds better. My problem is im not sure of which brand-names are quality, and i'd like to slowly update the entire system. The car is completely stock at this point, so it gets approximately the 260 horsepower that ford says, im looking for headers that will add 20-30 more. Any tips and websites you can send me will be helpful. Thanks

First off congrats on a great purchase! You are in store for loads of fun! Based on what you want your end results to be for your first upgrades (power and sound) I would first go with a set of gears and new mufflers. You'll get a much more responsive, "powerful" car with the sound of power. These two items will cost you well south of $1000 including installation, where as a high quality exhaust system from manifold all the way back could cost you $600 - $1000, and you might only notice a very little bit on the top end, and might even hurt yourself on the low end. Gears will make a VERY noticable difference in performance at all rpm levels and mufflers make the gears even more fun because the car not only will be faster it will sound faster. And then later on you can continue to upgrade the exhaust system as you want.

There are a million posts out there concerning which gears and what mufflers, just do a search. Good luck!

Check this out...

www.mustangexhaust.com

My favorite part of the board is the sound clip section...

Good luck..

Thanks for the info, which names should I look at for gear sets and mufflers? and what kind of a ratio is stock? can i convert a 5-speed to a 6-speed? do i have to take the car to a shop to put in a new set of gears? what brand of muffler do you prefer? aaugh so many questions so little time. Red, thanks for that site, ill have to check it out later.

Here's my experience with gears. I've got 3.73's and love them. Car is very responsive in all gears and the rpm's on the high way I consider to be down right low. I turn about 2400 rpm's or so at 75 mph. Many folks say that 3.73's are for strip/street application and 4.10's are more for if you are a hard core drag strip person. Also if you plan to go nitrous or supercharger one day, 3.73's are recommended over 4.10, as you will just melt the tires even more with the 4.10's. If your plan is NOT to go nitrous or supercharger than many folks say 4.10's are great. As you can see, not a real cut and dry answer. For me I find my 3.73's perfect, plenty of performance and not too much rpm's. However I do have to say if I had gone with 4.10's I would not have been unhappy, as I've driven cars with 4.10's and they did not bother me at all in terms of rpm level. The stock gears are 3.27 on a 2000 GT. In terms of installing gears from all I've read if you are a decent weekend mechanic, and most importantly have the exact tools, gears are not too hard to do. I have a few friends who are pretty serious weekend mechanics and they won't do gears because they don't have the tools, and if you screw up the gear install they will wine and drive you insane, plus potentially tear the gear to shreds. So I'd say definitely a shop job.

Here's the deal on mufflers and X-pipe vs H-pipe. H-pipes and FlowMaster (2 chamber) will give you that standard 1960's muscle car sound, a little lumpiness if you know what I mean. Definitely can't go wrong there. Sounds great. The X-pipes and a flow through muffler, say MagnaFlow mufflers, will give you what some describe as a European 8 cyl sound (not quite sure what that means). I actually have that setup and love it. Car sounds wicked, and it turns heads all the time because nobody knows what the heck is coming, or going, which is usually my case (I passed a woman in my office one day when we were all coming back from lunch, she's a real muscle car freak, drives a Camaro SS, and she said the hairs on the back of her neck stood up from the sound of my car, now if that isn't a compliment on my car's sound, I don't know what is!). I wanted mufflers that had no highway drone, and were fairly quiet, unless I got on it. MagnaFlow has filled that bill nicely. My car is exactly that, no highway drone, sounds good just motoring around town, very throaty, and great, very loud music when I stand on it (in fact I just freaking got kicked out of midnight drags in Jax, FL because my car was too loud, WTF!!, anyways, that's another post). I've also heard that X-pipes give more upper end hp than H-pipe setup, however H-pipe gives a little more low end torque.

Hope that helps, and sorry for the long post. Anything else let us know.

Not for nothing, even the F-body guy's always say (to me atleast)how they love the SOUND of the mustangs. As far as headers go, the only set your gonna notice any power gain are gonna be Long Tubes, which wolnt pass visual emission inspections in most states. They will also produce a deeper exhaust tone. My prochamber is what really set off my exhaust, and with the flowmasters, it too turns lots of heads. Thats when they usually cant take thier eye's off the car till I am out of sight ;)

I think the thing that most people have questions about are which brands, now what to do or how to do it, but what's the best?

I have a 1994 Probe GT, nothing like a mustang, but it was a starting point. The big controversy for a cat-back was Borla or GReddy, most die-hard domestics sayin' Borla, but those ricer-isc ypes sayin GReddy, because GReddy was big on the import seen. I went ahead and got the GReddy because I read that it was the best overall, turns out, maybe people gave me tons of compliments, on look ,performance and sound. The sound was unbeatable, sounded great. It was a Probe, so it didn't rock the road, but hey..

So I have questions to. I want that hardcore 60s Mustang, loud, in your face V8 sound. but heres waht I want to do

I want to do a Cobra-Rish exhaust set up:

Headers---X-pipe---Side_Exhaust. I think that's the move...

I am going to go thru Steeda for teh Side Exhaust, but will it sound like I want it or will it drone, I have no idea, since I dont know anyone around here with side exahust. Which X_pipe? Which Header. I never had any experience with Headers, I am worring about spending $400-$800 on a nice set of Headers and having them rust or blue_up ( not blow up) from the heat...I just want something that looks chromy ( not black) with a nice finish that will last a while and will perform the best...I dunno what to do, I am could search for days and fine deals on this or deals on that, but nothing beats experience, so lemme know.

Thanx

Skamx

Stang00, i just got my Ohio E-check, which is a royal waste of time so i have no problems with emissions, do you know how much they help though?

Hey SkaMX, just wondering if you read Sleeper's post about the H vs. X pipe thing. He seemed to say that the 60s muscle car sound came from the H pipes and the "euro" V-8 sound comes from the X pipes. Just thought that might help.

If you really want a classic sound, get the Thrush super turbos, now made by Dynomax. They sound killer, and enough different from flows to be good.

I prefer a straight through, so I'm going with Magnaflows and my Pro-chamber, which is sitting in the garage.

A side exhaust looks cool, but I have to warn you, there's added backpressure from an additional bend to get the pipe up there.

really? I would have thought that it would be the same if not a little better because you don't have to "loop" around the rear axle. :confused:

Well since im not trying to set a new land speed record, I think I'll hafta go ahead and get side exhaust :D


Skamz

http://www.steeda.com/store/-catalog...de_exhaust.jpg

Doesn't look any better than going out the back, eh?

Yep, once you see that picture I got to agree :)

ck your rear end tag or the tag in the door area, because my 2k gt is a 2:73 rear gear, i suspect yours is the same, ck it out. cya. ;) :D :D :D

on my experience my car on the dyno on gained 1and a half horse with longtubes so i would say it isnt worth it i gained 22horse with just a off road mac x pipe and its only $150.00 and sounds better than all in my oppinion?

Is it possible to install new gears and leave the shifter stock??
And do I have to get H pipe and Mufflers or just Mufflers?

Yes and no.

You can change the gear ratio without replacing your shifter. I find however, that with the steeper gears are shift more and a new shifter is a big plus.

You don't have to buy an H-pipe to get mufflers, it just sounds better IMO. :D

Gears have nothing to do with the shifter. Before you decide on changing shifter make sure you try one out that is already installed on someone elses car, as you might not like the feel of a short shifter.

You can do just mufflers, without touching the rest of the exhaust system. Just mufflers should cost you about $200 fully installed.