Glass pack, no cats

On a 3.0L V6 how would it sound to have pipes straight out of the headers, leading all the way to the back? Taking the cats off, all there will be is a glass pack on each pipe. How will it sound?

DBCcatcher007 said:

On a 3.0L V6 how would it sound to have pipes straight out of the headers, leading all the way to the back? Taking the cats off, all there will be is a glass pack on each pipe. How will it sound?

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I don't think you would like it. IMO, It's going to sound like a ricey 4 cyl., except maybe much worse.

And honestly, you should keep your cats.

Pete

I have a 4.0 that has true duals. 12" glasspacks and 2" pipe. It doesn't sound like a 4 banger at all. It sounds like a V8 when idling, and then when you give it some gas, it starts to sound like a V8 only it has a little bit of a moan to it. I have a friend with a 88 Ranger with true duals on a 2.9. It has 18" packs and 2 1/4" pipe. It sounds pretty similar to mine. I personally would suggest cutting the cats off and running 18" packs and 2" pipe. Unless you want it to be loud like mine. To clarify, my friends can hear me clearly 3-4 miles away. lol. Something else you could try (although I haven't heard it before) would be to keep the cats and Y it out, no glasspacks (or one 12"). I don't know how loud you want it to be. You wanna be as loud as though chevys, you go with my setup. Cats make it quieter. BTW, when you stomp on my truck, it sounds kinda like a 4 cylinder, just a deeper cackle. Hope I have been some help.

yea i just had a custom si/do glasspack exhaust put on my truck('96 4.0L) and it sounds really deep at idle and not at all ricey when you get on it, got a nice moan to it. Honestly it sounds a lot better than most rangers iv heard with duels.

And i agree with Psychopete keep ur cats, ur not going to gain any performance except it might be a little louder

ill see if i can get a video of it up soon

madman_2 said:

I have a friend with a 88 Ranger with true duals on a 2.9.

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One thing that people disregard when they do this on a 2.9;

is that it only has a single oxygen sensor.

I don't know what he ended up actually doing with it, but I will say that I feel sorry for any future owners that might end up with that thing.

Pete

Psychopete said:

One thing that people disregard when they do this on a 2.9;

is that it only has a single oxygen sensor.

I don't know what he ended up actually doing with it, but I will say that I feel sorry for any future owners that might end up with that thing.

Pete

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As I recall on my parts truck it was on a crossover from the two header pipes, so if they had true duals with a crossover (as most are) he could have just cut the two headerpipes off of at the cat and left the 02 senser in the stock location.

I could be full of crap but I am pretty sure that is how it was on that truck, it was a '86 if it matters.

I had a glasspack on my 2.8, it sounded decent at idle but had the typical anything but a v-8 drone at speed. No I can barely hear it and I love it.

85_Ranger4x4 said:

As I recall on my parts truck it was on a crossover from the two header pipes, so if they had true duals with a crossover (as most are) he could have just cut the two headerpipes off of at the cat and left the 02 senser in the stock location.

I could be full of crap but I am pretty sure that is how it was on that truck, it was a '86 if it matters.

I had a glasspack on my 2.8, it sounded decent at idle but had the typical anything but a v-8 drone at speed. No I can barely hear it and I love it.

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The o2 sensor is right after the two pipes Y together at the passenger side so that it's reading from both sides.

There's no way to have "true duals" with a single o2 sensor unless they rigged it into a H-pipe or X-pipe like setup. I consider "true duals" to be the drivers and passenger exhaust completely separated, no cross over. That is typical around here, true duals means true duals. A lot of people can't afford to do it right, so they just do that. But the number of beat up Chevy's I've seen around with V8s has decreased significantly as the price of gas has been going up.

But yes, I can see what you're saying, he could add an o2 bung to the middle of the stock collector, rig another out on the driver side of the collector and essentially get a H pipe sort of setup, but that would take the o2 directly out of the exhaust stream. I'd guess that it would read lean most of the time.

I just don't know of any way it could be done correctly (on stock engine management) without it loosing performance. Which a 2.9L needs the most help it can get.

Pete

Psychopete said:

The o2 sensor is right after the two pipes Y together at the passenger side so that it's reading from both sides.

There's no way to have "true duals" with a single o2 sensor unless they rigged it into a H-pipe or X-pipe like setup. I consider "true duals" to be the drivers and passenger exhaust completely separated, no cross over. That is typical around here, true duals means true duals. A lot of people can't afford to do it right, so they just do that. But the number of beat up Chevy's I've seen around with V8s has decreased significantly as the price of gas has been going up.

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The diffenition of "true duals" vary widely. I do have true duals on my F-150, thankfully Ford put a true dual friendly setup on it where each bank has its own two cat system and 02 sensers, the only thing the two sides shared was the tailpipe and muffler.

if you guys are talking about my setup, i cut the o2 sensor off. the only prob you have is when you start it some times it wants to run rich and all you have to do is touch the gas and it will come right out of it. my friend has a 2.9 and his is done the same way. they still have the same power that they had before. and it is as true as duals can get. its not h or y. theyre completely dependent of each other. like i said before, cats cut down on noise kind of like a muffler. i used to have it y-ed after the cats with my o2 sensor on. it had two 12 inchers on each side so it could easily be converted to true if i wanted to. it wasnt loud enough for me so i changed it. i would say you can cut the cats and o2 sensor of 94 and older for sure.

madman_2 said:

i would say you can cut the cats and o2 sensor of 94 and older for sure.

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Not to be a dick about it, but I'd hate to see someone actually follow this advice.

It's one thing to hack the hell out of your own shit, but to make a suggestion like this is just plain bad advice.

Not only will cutting the o2 cause crappier mileage and emissions, but cutting both of those isn't even legal (at least I know for sure the cat, but the o2 is pretty much an emissions device).

There's no reason to cut the o2 sensor, the computer uses this sensor to help in the air/fuel calculation. Without it, it uses a built in table in the computer for the values, which is rich biased to be on the safe side.

I think the CEL alone would drive me crazy enough as it is. Now you can't tell what is going on with the computer as far as when it comes to diagnosing a problem.

I wouldn't be suprised if you replied back that you taped, busted, or disconnected the CEL. This site is for fixing shit, not rigging it.

Pete

on my parts truck (98 3.0), the entire exhaust got whacked off just before the cat. Sounds pretty nice actually. or that might have been the carbon monoxide getting to my brain. either way.

If you go cutting the cats off, you better plan on keeping it offroad only. I'm pretty sure that will prevent it from being inspectable.

my pride... lol. i checked my mileage as soon as i did that and it hasnt changed at all. it helped me found out that i have a bad valve seal on my drive side head. therefore it smokes and smells like a lawn mower when you start it up or put it under load. i also heard from somebody on here that its illegal for a shop to cut the cats off and you dont get a fine for it (at least not in IL). if its too loud you could get a loud exhaust ticket for $75. plus i also heard that you could get a dummy o2 sensor that gives the computer what it wants. i have no decrease in horsepower or torque. i mean hell, i outran a bored out 350 in a chevy 1500 for crying out loud! if it would have run rich all the time, it would never have done that. im not trying to give bad advice. i just put my 2 cents worth. im a redneck, so i guess ****** riggin is what we do best! lol

sorry. *jerry* riggin.

madman_2 said:

i also heard from somebody on here that its illegal for a shop to cut the cats off and you dont get a fine for it (at least not in IL). if its too loud you could get a loud exhaust ticket for $75.

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Shops here in Iowa get inspected for cats laying around without corosponding paperwork to go with them (this cat is bad and was replaced...) The shop can get a $25k fine and the tech that did it can get $5k. It is a federal deal although enforcement may vary.

Disturbing the peace is up to the cop around here, some places have decible levels they check for. Here is once you annoy them enough you get a ticket.

Unless it's an 8 don't put on packs, they sound sorta wannabee. I used to have them on my old 2.8 and it sounded like hell. Don't ever take off the cats they are there for a reason. As for the oxygen sensor, again, it's there for a reason. It how the truck monitors it's self. If your going to put on packs, do a cat back exhaust.

Just my opinion, I could be wrong (but I'm not).
Jay