straight pipe a 4.6?

dworkshop1

New Member
Apr 5, 2004
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I have a 98 gt with an off road h-pipe. i was wondering what peoples opinions are on straight pipeing a 4.6, i have heard that it can cause damage to the valves, but have also heard thats a myth. i use it as a daily driver. any info would be appreciated thanks.
 
I've heard that full straight pipes actually cost horse power. No personal experience just word of mouth. Plus it will be obnoxious for a daily driver.
 
i have also heard that but i really dont think that would be the case, especially if you were to add some bigger fuel injectors and heads. yeah it would be obnoxious but thats the point. :nice:
 
depends. If the motor was built I would like it. I love the sound of a loud "fast" car with big lopey cams. if it is stock I think it would sound like a stock car with a loud/obnoxious exhaust. which I tend to think is like false advertisement. no diffenent than a honda with a big muffler. the car is not fast enough to be that loud. I like to call them "notrods" sound like they are something but they are not.
 
that was my biggest concern with straights. cause right now with the stock mufflers it raps pretty good, but i have heard trans ams with straights and it sounds kind of tinny. i dont really care about the look-no show thing, i just care that the thing tears.i just dont know what a 4.6 stang sounds like straight piped.
 
I don't think I would do it with an O/R pipe. I had them on before I got the SLP stuff and loved them. Sounded great, but backfired when letting off the gas. It wasn't near as loud as my SLP stuff but it was with the stock h pipe so it had 6 cats to muffle it. I'd say go get a nice cat back system.

Andy
 
what cat-back system would be the loudest? i honestly think that my stock mufflers are louder than other stangs i have heard with off road h and flowmasters. i just want it to crack more, and flows deaden that.
 
well i recently put straight pipes on my 98 GT and let me tell you as soon as we fired it up after all was done.......the look on my face - priceless......every single one of my friends loves the sound of my car and all of my girlfriends want to ride in the stang we ever we go b/c of how it sounds and of course cause its a stang......i use my car as a daily driver and the only thing that i hate is when i come home at 2 a.m. and everybody is sleeping on my street so its kinda of hard to keep it quiet.......but i love it!!!! just my .02.
 
mavestang said:
well i recently put straight pipes on my 98 GT and let me tell you as soon as we fired it up after all was done.......the look on my face - priceless......every single one of my friends loves the sound of my car and all of my girlfriends want to ride in the stang we ever we go b/c of how it sounds and of course cause its a stang......i use my car as a daily driver and the only thing that i hate is when i come home at 2 a.m. and everybody is sleeping on my street so its kinda of hard to keep it quiet.......but i love it!!!! just my .02.

again straight pipes sound like raunchy ass...and youll lose alot of torque too.

kirkyg
 
SilverSteed said:
You will NOT lose any noticable power with straight pipes. I ran a 13.99 with mine as my only mod. They sound great also don't listen to this guy.

Andy


I thought you said you still had cats though. I mean cats do muffle exhaust. you think it sounds great but I think cats sound like a$% so I never run staits with cats. my wifes blazer was like that when we bought it. I could not wait to rip the cat off and replace it with a muffler. night and day difference to me.

this is one of those arguments that boils down to taste. If you like loud you will like it. if you like your exhaust to have a praticular tone you porbaly won't. I have always prefered the sound of mufflers.
 
I'm sorry, i should have clarified what i meant. The straight pipes will sound great WITH CATS. Without cats, I wouldn't use them, and if you read my earlier post, i said to get a cat back system. With an O/R mid pipe, I'd imagine it would backfire like crazy. Mine backfired pretty bad and it had cats.

Andy
 
I am running straight pipes on my 99 GT and I like the sound, although I left my cats on. So, the exhaust passes through my cats first then through the pipes, which muffles the sound a little and also stops a lot of the back firing. I have run straight pipes on my 02 4.0L Ranger and on my 95 Lightning, I personally love the sound. Also, as with the power, look at it this way: Mufflers supply restriction, straight pipes do not give restriction. Look at the top fuel dragsters that run straight pipes right off of their headers....apparently it must increase horsepower somewhat or I don't think they would do it. Just remember to not just stop the pipe right after your cats, let the pipes go all the way to the back of your car or no less then the front tires or you could end up damaging valves. Also the shorter the pipe the louder it's going to be, more travel in pipe makes it a LITTLE quieter. That is just my experience and my .02 cents. Good luck and I am sure whatever you choose will sound good.

Oh yeah, best way to find out if you like the sound of straight pipes.....lift your car and take off the 4 bolts right infront of your mufflers and push the pipes apart and then start your car....that's pretty much how it is going, besides it will probably be a hair quieter.
 
To be honest i've never heard a car with no mufflers but with catalytic converters. I dont know why anyone would do that. The mufflers make the sound bearable. With no mufflers i can't see how cats would make much difference in sound quality.

kirkyg
 
The cats don't do a ton for sound, but they are restrictive and muffle the noise a little. The reason to leave the cats on is to pass emmissions. Or I would try running without cats. There is someone here in Washington with no cats and WAS running straight pipes, but now he has mufflers and no cats. Without cats it actually made a sound difference.