Thoughts on exhaust for Explorer engine swap

[gadget73]

The 1990 Towncar manifold is the tubular manifold. Have a gander at that vs the ugly iron lumps that would have been on your wagon. Its the closest thing to a factory performance part any non-HO motor ever got. Its not an amazing piece, don't get me wrong, but it sucks less than the iron ones did.


I never ran mine with factory manifolds. Its had headers since the HO went in, originally stock Mustang units and for the last 7 years or so its been the Hedman headers. It did have the stock Mustang headers cobbled to stock dual exhaust at first, but I had the cam in a tooth off so it never ran quite right. When the exhaust was fixed it didn't make a giant difference but the motor was screwed up to the point where it wouldn't have shown it.

[knucklehead0202]

Differing schools of thought, but this is my humble opinion. The 5.0's and generally the pushrod motors sound so much better without cats. Around here everyone with Mod motors seems to run an offroad pipe though and they all sound like garbage. Yes, the stink is quite another thing, but I like my 5.0's without cats and mod motors with cats. I'm putting the offroad pipe on the '90 but it's only until I get a good stock mustang pipe and get it modified to fit right. That way I can interchange them when stupid smog time comes. Otherwise, i'll likely run the offroad pipe mostly. Should be interesting to see how it sounds.

[gadget73]

cats keep it quieter. Its a Lincoln, its not supposed to sound like anything

[88Vic]

They're not "supposed" to have an abundance of power either, just enough to cruise comfortably, but what's the fun in that?

I like a decently loud exhaust sometimes. Not loud all the time like dronemasters, but mufflers like Super Turbos or Magnaflows can sound almost stock just cruising but mean as hell when you step on it.

If I were you, I'd just get the offroad H-pipe and weld cats into it, Walker universal cats are cheap and in 2.5" size they won't restrict flow, even though they're not highflow. They'll probably keep it quiet being new 3-way cats. Then have 2.5" pipe put in to connect to the Summit mufflers and tailpipes. I can't see that being too loud with full tailpipes but you never know, the glasspacks are an option or you could try the 20" case Thrush Turbo on one side to try and eliminate drone. If you don't like the idea of different muffler, Super Turbo's are a bit quieter than regular turbo mufflers, the flow directors in the Super Turbo smooth out the exhaust flow and make it a tad quieter.

Btw, I hate you for showing me you have a Procharged 96 Impala SS, with a 6spd. So much jealousy right now.

[gadget73]

Lincolns are supposed to be powerful. They fucked that up in the 80s though. Look at pre-emissions models. Big blocks, massive torque, absolutely silent. Luxury cars were also performance models historically.

[cheaneyt]

agreed on the converters - I'm so over having no cats on cars...my wife and kids hate the smell too. Yeah I would buy a used 2.5" off road h pipe, didn't know they even made them in 2.25. They pop up on C/L all the time here.

The muscle truck is awesome! But no, I wouldn't want my slow Lincoln to sound that loud...that's what this car is for:

This is fucking badass period! What was the button you messed with to change the idle and aggression?

Sent while thinking of new mods for my 96 TC, using Tapatalk.

[drhill]

Ze Germans still get that right to this day...

[knucklehead0202]

Electronic exhaust cutout. Always found the impalas ugly. JMO. The generation before that weren't bad-lookin'. Far as exhaust goes, the systems on these cars are so long, you'd be hard-pressed to get it TOO loud. I kept stock manifolds and cat pipes on my '98, so I've re-done the cat-back like 3 times trying to get it to sound right. I currently run 2-1/4" from the cat flanges with an x-pipe, 9" long glasspacks and 2-1/4" all the way out back with 3.5" tips. Sounds alright but still fairly quiet unless you're really into it.

[magnus77]

I always thought the stock duals would choke the 302 at 2.25 or even 2 inch duals, but after watching that roadkill episode where they banged the headers to hell I'm kind of doubtful now. They saw literally no change even with the restrictions caused by the hammering the pipes. Maybe the logs wouldnt be so bad after all unless your pushing serious hp (likely not).

[pantera77]

IDK, the factory duals are crush bent and get alarmingly awful at the bends. Beating a few dents into a header is a lot different then a rapid succession of crush bent greatness. I doubt a stock lopo would notice, but a Explorer motor might.

The factory cast iron manifolds are worthless, the 90 TC logs are an upgrade, but even stock stang shorties outflow them greatly.

[gadget73]

That sink trap at the tailpipes has to do a real number on flow.

The inside of those iron logs is pretty small, not very smooth either. From a sheer matter of getting exhaust gas from the heads to the back of the car, they will work but thats probably about all the credit really warranted.

[knucklehead0202]

Haha if I ever saw a p-trap that looked like that I'd shit, but I know what you mean. Used to spray the hose into the exhaust on the '98 just to see how much would shoot out when I fired it up. They hold a lot of water! Seriously went to great lengths to make that car loud while still having stock cats. Without mufflers they just sound like trash, but I settled on tiny little glasspacks and if I'd had more work done to the motor, it probably would've sounded awesome. As it stood, sounded pretty healthy but only if you got on it. Being in shitty California, I'm stuck with running cats but once the stroker goes into the '90, the game should change a bit. If you have a small-block car and don't have to have cats, don't. If you do, run small mufflers. Mod motor stuff, run cats and straight-through mufflers. Windsor, either no-cats and any chamber-type mufflers, or cats and small, noisy mufflers. Waiting to see how my spiral-flows sound with a good engine, but otherwise will go spintech or 1-chamber flows. Had 1-chambers on the mod motor(98) and they sounded like shit.