Wasting Time & Money?? Exhaust dilemma,,

[Fishin Mike]

I am new to the 7.3 World and this site, there seems to be a great deal of good information but I am learning my way around.

Anyhow, I purchased a 99 F350 that is pure stock with 82K miles. It is a great ride and very pleased with the acquisition. I am deliberating an exhaust and spoke with a fellow yesterday that has a muffler shop and he does a lot of diesel exhaust work. He stated that it is just as simple as cutting the muffler out and running straight pipe, or a flow through muffler and tip to get better performance and mileage, and as you can imagine, it is far cheaper as well, lol.

Am I just wasting time by keeping the 3.5" pipe or will it suffice?

[broncrider]

it just depends on what all mods you want to do to the truck...bigger down pipe and a good 4 inch strait pipe wouldnt hurt at all and would help drop you egt's

[silverF250]

The 4" pipe is going to give you better results. If you don't planon adding a chip then your probably okay.

[ABOBB]

Welcome to Powerstroke.org

What you ultimately do with exhaust will highly depend on what other mods you plan on doing. You could very easily just replace the down pipe, and put a piece of straight pipe in place of the muffler. That would be the bargain way to go, but is quite effective. It also gives you the chance to mod your truck some, without having to spend a lot. If you want bigger mods in the future... you'll probably want to go with a complete aftermarket exhuast at that time.

[strokin_early_99]

I agree with ABOBB completely.

When was your truck built? It is on the door tag. 99 model year trucks have two designations, early99 and late99. It will not make any difference with your exhaust but it can with other things on your truck including brakes.

[Fishin Mike]

Thanks for the welcome,,,,

I have a late '99, it was manufactured in June of 1999.

I really like the issue of saving money when I can. I have been reading what I can here and I would much rather DIY the Intake instead of dropping $250-300 on that. Likewise, I just can't see a lot of difference between a 3.5" and 4" pipe in the exhaust but I may be wrong. However, I can see the added benefits of a larger downtube from what I have been reading.

Where can I find just a downtube and how easy of an install will that be into the stock 3.5" pipe?

Thanks again for the info.