Exhaust. Performance not noise, Help me make a sleeper.

[aircooledTOM]

I hate drone, I'm not a fan of useless noise. However, I definitely want to do something with my truck's exhaust and downpipes. I am in search of a throatier, more purposeful tone, but I do not want unnecessary noise, and I definitely don't want any drone. I'm a form follows function kinda guy. Whatever I do it needs to have tangible performance benefits.

For background, I also have a WRX 2.0DIT. The car is sick, lots of bolt ons, etc... for exhaust, it has everything done up to the stock axle-back (basically just a y-pipe and the mufflers). Headers, downpipe, mid-pipe... It has a kind of understated sound, purposeful, but not annoying. I'd like to do something similar with my Raptor. Can anyone make some suggestions for me?

As of now, everything is completely stock. I'm open to a setup that requires a tuner, and my preferences run towards Cobb (see above Subaru paragraph), but I'm not particularly interested in killing my warranty quite yet.

I think I want to stick with the stock intake for the time being... It looks like Ford did a fairly good job on that, but if I'm wrong on that, please school me up.

Thanks everyone.

 

[isis]

Keep the cats and catback. Downpipes and turbo adapters are debatable. IC and tune is most effective. Intake optional same as on a Scoob.

 

[jimmyjamm]

Do the simple stuff first that will keep you in warranty, those i have had good improvement are:
-S&B intake with an oiled filter (oiled flow better and trap dirt better, but messy to clean; flows way better than stock and has enclosed, but enlarged box, so no noticeable increase in intake noise);
-turbo flange adapters-I went with SPD and the difference was noticeable;
-do the rear pipes in 3" mandrel bend, i went with Borla, made a very slight difference in smoothing throttle transition, but later with other mods will likely help more;
-I have, but haven't had a chance to install, a CV Fab OE location intercooler, probably going to include CV or AMS intake tubing as well.

-Downpipes, I want to go with SPD since they will not throw check engine light, but nervous about warranty, since i bought extended out to 100k miles-however, the SPD is the only downtubes that won't throw a CEL, will passs emissions tailpipe and visual inspection.

 

[Guy]

Ok.

kooks green catted downpipes will also pass emissions and both should have o2 extenders to be safe.

Neither will give you any noticeable horsepower with stock turbos.

catback exhaust gives minuscule amounts of horsepower.

CAI gives no power either with stock turbos.

Turbo adapters will do a little bit. 10-15 horsepower on an otherwise stock truck.

All those things together will cost you a few grand, not counting installation.

You’ll go from 350 rear wheel horsepower to about 365, with all of those items.

Is 15 horsepower worth that to you? Only you can answer that.

you can pick up 40-50 horsepower with a burger piggyback tuner chip that can be removed and is highly unlikely to void your warranty. It would have a lot more bang for the buck.

Do the simple stuff first that will keep you in warranty, those i have had good improvement are:
-S&B intake with an oiled filter (oiled flow better and trap dirt better, but messy to clean; flows way better than stock and has enclosed, but enlarged box, so no noticeable increase in intake noise);
-turbo flange adapters-I went with SPD and the difference was noticeable;
-do the rear pipes in 3" mandrel bend, i went with Borla, made a very slight difference in smoothing throttle transition, but later with other mods will likely help more;
-I have, but haven't had a chance to install, a CV Fab OE location intercooler, probably going to include CV or AMS intake tubing as well.

-Downpipes, I want to go with SPD since they will not throw check engine light, but nervous about warranty, since i bought extended out to 100k miles-however, the SPD is the only downtubes that won't throw a CEL, will passs emissions tailpipe and visual inspection.

 

[Badgertits]

Screw an exhaust get a legit tune & that all these need for performance until you get into swapping out turbos & then comes stroking the motor to a 4.2, anything between a tune & those major mods is just throwing $$$ down for no performance

 

[aircooledTOM]

I really appreciate all of your feedback.

I guess I'm less scared about the warranty... damn the torpedoes full speed ahead!!! I'm now leaning toward a Cobb "stage 2" without intake, but with the trans control module. In addition to that, I'll probably do intake piping, turbo adapters, catless downpipes, dumps, and then stock exhaust after the dumps. This fairly closely replicates the mods I've done on my Subie, I don't expect the same gains, but I'll be happy with 400 WHP, and I'm told that's pretty doable with a pro-tune.

Again, thanks for all of your feedback and perspective.

 

[Predator_Raptor]

From a sound quality / drone perspective, the dumps will not achieve what you are looking for. The factory exhaust is ok, the Limited muffler that people are swapping in is really nice. Honestly, the ecoboost just needs a tune, and you will have the feel similar to the subaru.

 

[aircooledTOM]

From a sound quality / drone perspective, the dumps will not achieve what you are looking for. The factory exhaust is ok, the Limited muffler that people are swapping in is really nice. Honestly, the ecoboost just needs a tune, and you will have the feel similar to the subaru.

I think I want to do the dumps just to occasionally make goofy noise occasionally and then keep everything stock after the DP and dumps. That should keep everything nice and quiet. I hadn't heard anything about the limited muffler swap. I'll do a search and see what's out there... Is that a swap that makes it quieter? or what's the point of the Limited thing?

Thanks for the response!