Strokers,
Beginning to give back… Thanks for all the great posts.
Yesterday, I replaced my kitty with a test pipe. Ive searched and combed over this site and others. Ive never been able to find where someone said this pipe fits my Xcar. Well, Ill have to be that guy for the others out there with 2005 6.0L stock Excursions who want to slowly add on to their performance mods.
An important thing to know is that I have a cat-back exhaust. For the new guys, that means that I have stock pipes all the way to the muffler. Yes, Im still using a muffler. I prefer the Dynomax Welded series. When Im ready for the turbo back exhaust, Ill pick one with a muffler to deepen the exhaust note over a straight-pipe ‘hollow’ sound. Im just not sure yet as to which brand I want.
At the beginning of March 2010 the part number 350WBEXT is the part I found while doing a ‘Dogpile’ (metasearch engine) search. I looked on E-bay, as advertised on here, and found the same thing. After much reading of the fine print, and a phone call or 2, I decided to buy it. The price at the time was about $55.00 delivered in nice round numbers from the E-bay vendor. I don’t know if there are any more available because I haven’t checked. And you can only guess if the price will change in the future.
My E-bay vendor item number was 330388285184. The picture seen on the vendor’s site was the same as found other places. The part numbers 350WBEXT and 330388285184 are the same. Im not going to recommend any vendors in this thread, Im just reporting the facts that I experienced.
The pipe was delivered in brand new condition. The actual delivered part looked just like the picture – as it should. Its made of aluminized tube, so I like to paint it with high temp paint. Ill briefly describe what I did to install this – for the new guys with lots of questions. There wont be any installation pictures. If you can imagine removing one pipe with a ‘football’ in the middle of it and replacing it with a straight pipe, then that’s the entire process.
Right after I ordered the part, I slid under the truck and sprayed Aero Kroil by Kano on the bolts that connect the flange. (This is the best stuff Ive ever used – it Fs PB in the A). First thing after I got the pipe and eyeballed it for a test fit for length and bend, I washed it down with brake cleaner once or twice and then painted it with 2 coats of high temp.
I unbolted the kitty and wrestled the thing out of there. The stock muffler guys will have to do much more disconnecting than I did since my aftermarket muffler uses just one set of hangars. There were 2 on my stock setup. I will eventually weld on one of the old brackets to my Dynomax muffler for additional support after installing the kitty delete. The downpipe is pretty stiff but doesn’t need any load on it. The test pipe slid right into the adapter pipe in front of my muffler and mated up nicely to the downpipe.
I dabbed some anti seize on both ends of the pipe to help remove it and put the kitty back on when Im finished 'off-roading'. The pipe didn’t come with any bolts. I just got 2x 3/8 – 2-1/2” grade 5 bolts with 5/16 washers to connect the flange and used the old collar to tighten the rear of the pipe to the muffler. Its equally important to align your exhaust after doing this in the same way its important to align it when installing new exhaust. Even though I chose not to loosen any other connections, I used scrap blocks of wood to position the pipes away from suspension and body parts. Then I tightened down the kitty delete pipe. Things worked out nicely for me.
The best, but most time consuming way to do it would be to loosen everything from the kitty back and then change your parts out and reset the pipes. I was able to skip those steps because the fitment of the test pipe was good for my truck and I had the necessary clearances. Don’t confuse what I just described as ‘cutting corners.’ My philosophy is to never cut corners and do it right the first time.
But like I just mentioned, things worked out nicely for me and the pipes went back exactly where they started from.
What does it sound like? I think that the exhaust loudness is about 50% louder across the board. Before the mod, I could barely hear the exhaust at idle over the clacking up front. Now there is a loud whine coming out the back that is the sound of the air diffusing out the turbo. When I drive out the neighborhood in the morning, the turbo whistle is really loud – and its like that all the time. The exhaust note is deeper and louder, too. I’d have to estimate a 50% increase in overall exhaust loudness. I have an aftermarket muffler, but I will bet that people with stock mufflers will get improved exhaust tone after the install. Check for leaks, check for leaks, check for leaks. That’s really hot air shooting out of there! What are your questions?
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03-28-2010, 10:09 AM
2005 Excursion 6.0 test pipe install specifics
Linear Mode
