Fox Help With A Straight Pipe

newguywitha89fox said:

I am relatively new to the car world and I need some help in doing a straight pipe for my car any suggestions for materials will be greatly appreciated. Also other exhaust system suggestions are welcome. I own a 1989 LX 5.0

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No idea how old you are, but from someone who's done it, straight pipes are honestly pretty miserable to deal with. They're incredibly loud, drone at cruising speeds, and will get you pulled over by the police in most jurisdictions.

With a 5.0 fox, the world is your oyster when it comes to street-legal exhaust systems, some of which are still obscenely loud. Bolt-on and highly interchangeable parts and kits are available from headers to tailpipes, from every manufacturer you can imagine from Flowmaster to Magnaflow and everyone else in between.

My last fox (granted, I sold it in 2006, so it's been awhile), had Flowtech shorty headers, a MAC off-road H-pipe (you can pick up a lot of "loud" right there if you want, off-road H-pipes aren't strictly legal, but since most areas aren't enforcing catalytic converter requirements on 24+ year old cars, it's not usually a big deal), and the Flowtech Warlock Stinger cat-back system. Off-idle it set off every car alarm within 100 feet, and at wide-open throttle it roared, but everywhere else in between it was nice and pleasant.

My last four Mustangs (two Mustang IIs and two 4.6L S197s) had different exhausts on each.

My '76 Mustang II had Blackjack longtube headers into 2.5" pipes with Flowmaster Super 44s with dumps at the axle (it sounded amazing, but was so loud you couldn't hear yourself think, much less carry on a conversation, in the car).
My 2010 GT had Pypes Pype Bombs axle-backs on it, and was bone-stock from there forward, and sounding very aggressive, but not loud enough to get me pulled over.
My '75 Mustang II has Heddman longtubes into a 2.5" H-pipe, and had Flowmaster 40s with dumps until I cut them off and replaced them with Dynomax Super Turbos for Porsche applications and put 90 degree tailpipes out from under the car to quiet the interior boominess down.
My 2009 Mustang GT/CS had Dynomax muffler deletes, and honestly, it sounded like ass. I took them back off and put the stock mufflers back on with the intention of ordering another set of Pype Bombs (sold the car before that happened).


Everyone has different tastes in what sounds "good". Hell, what sounded good to me 16 years ago when I first got started in this hobby (glasspacks, hell yeah!) gets on my damned nerves now that I'm 32. You need to find something you'll be happy with. The one thing I can almost be certain of though, because when I was a teenager did it, was straight pipes aren't going to make you as happy as you think they will. I put them on my first car, a 1975 Chevy pickup with a 400 small-block... it sounded awesome... for about 5 minutes, then I had a headache from how damned loud it was.

Go to Youtube, search for videos owners have posted with different exhausts on their 5.0s, and find something with the sound you like, and duplicate that.