Which Catted H/X-pipe offers best ground Clearance?

[TenorPlayinGuy]

I've heard alot of people saying that the BBK unit sits 1" lower than the chassis. What about the Magnaflow piece? Or any other piece? I've got a BBK O/R H-pipe currently, with two Magnaflow cats welded on, but the installer botched it up REAL bad, and I only have about 2-3 inches total clearance under the tranny to get over speed bumps. Not to mention I am lowered like crazy. I rub on EVERYTHING!

So post the pictures if you got em. Dont know if the headers make a difference. But I'm using BBK Shorties.

Thanks for anything fellas. I'll post pics so you all can see what I'm working with.

 

[rbonella]

The lowest part of my exhaust system is at the collector on my long tubes, 2-3" tops! I run an old MAC O/R H-pipe with flwmastr dumps. When I rub (all the time) I usually hit the collector or the cross pipe on the H-pipe. From what I've seen over the years, they are all pretty close to the ground. My car is lowered approx 2 inches at all four corners. There might be some differences between manufacturers when it comes to ground clearance, but it won't be by that much

 

[TenorPlayinGuy]

Just as long as it isn't the clearance of this joke of an H-pipe!

I know the BBK I was still hitting on certain bumps, but thats cuz it's lowered, This thing hits on stuff that I wouldn't even trip on!

 

[ras50gt]

I have bbk shortys and catted Magnaflow x-pipe. Doesnt sit too low, looks nice, sounds awesome. Also, passed smog with ease. Definitely a nice piece. My friend has a bbk x, he wishes he got the magnaflow. Magnaflow more expensive tho. The fit was great and install easy.

Only regret I have is I would have got an off road x instead ( I live in CA so needed cats for smog, but now live in a county in CA that only requires smog when you sell the car). If the catted x sounds this nice I can only imagine how bad ass the o/r would sound.

 

[Darkwriter77]

I wish Jeg's sold a cat'ed X-pipe. I LOVE their off-road X-pipe. Cheap, fits great, and plenty of ground clearance (as much as the stock cat'ed H-pipe). I suppose you could always try your luck with buying one of those and having a pair of high-flow cats welded or clamped in...?

Whatever you do, steer clear of the UPR cat'ed X-pipe. ** T O T AL J U N K ** !!! Glad that I only have to use that for about 1 week out of every year - the rest of the time, it sits in my spare room, taking up space.

 

[Hi-Po]

I have bbk shortys and catted Magnaflow x-pipe. Doesnt sit too low, looks nice, sounds awesome. Also, passed smog with ease. Definitely a nice piece. My friend has a bbk x, he wishes he got the magnaflow. Magnaflow more expensive tho. The fit was great and install easy.

I'm surprised to hear that as I have a Magnaflow catted x-pipe myself - the fit was awful when I installed it, and I got about two inches ground clearance.
On a car that is lowered approximately 1.5 inches.
Drove with it for about two months scraped absolutely everywhere. Then I gave up, got out the grinder and made several cuts in it, bent it up and welded the cuts.
Now it is driveable, but this is not what you want to do with a brand new stainless steel x-pipe.

Worst thing I have ever bought.

 

[TenorPlayinGuy]

So it seems, It's another thing that is specific to each car. So I'll get one and just make sure to tweak it and take my time installing it.

 

[QUICK91LX]

Use your trans mount hanger...without it the exhaust will hang at the point where the h meets the flow tubes

 

[nick6690]

I know which one will give you the least clearance and thats Pypes. I have BBK shorties and a Pypes catted x and its about 3 or 4 inches off the ground. There's yellow paint all over it from speed bumps.

 

[strtrcr50]

I know which one will give you the least clearance and thats Pypes. I have BBK shorties and a Pypes catted x and its about 3 or 4 inches off the ground. There's yellow paint all over it from speed bumps.

+1

 

[Darkwriter77]

I know which one will give you the least clearance and thats Pypes. I have BBK shorties and a Pypes catted x and its about 3 or 4 inches off the ground. There's yellow paint all over it from speed bumps.

My UPR X-pipe is the same design as the Pypes X-pipe. No tranny crossmember hanger. Stupid thing keeps sagging at the flange where it connects to the flow tubes, and you have to jack the thing up and re-tighten it every week. Stoopid, stoopid design.

 

[TenorPlayinGuy]

I will take a look at it.

 

[TenorPlayinGuy]

Pypes 409 Stainless Steel Catted X-Pipe (79-95 5.0L) at AmericanMuscle.com - Free Shipping!

Is this the one your referring to?

Thanks fellas.

 

[Darkwriter77]

Pypes 409 Stainless Steel Catted X-Pipe (79-95 5.0L) at AmericanMuscle.com - Free Shipping!

Is this the one your referring to?

Thanks fellas.

It's a similar design. The UPR X-pipe had the cats already welded in place on mine ... which sucked, because they're about 1" too far back and hit on the transmission crossmember. I actually had to grind a notch in the crossmember to make the thing fit even well enough to connect to the header flanges properly.

But it's the same design, otherwise, in that it doesn't have a transmission crossmember hanger. While this makes it easier to install and remove, it also has no support to keep it from drooping and dragging/scraping on every little bump and dip in the road. Even when it's not sagging and it's all jacked up and snugged into place, the front end and cats still tend to hang WAY lower than they should, even on a non-lowered Fox.

Here's the steaming turd that I bought back in '05 and have hated ever since (and, again, fortunately spends all but a week of every year sitting in my spare room):

MUSTANG-UPR Products.com

 

[TenorPlayinGuy]

I think I'm just gonna try and pick up a stocker on craigslist, and get myself a nice Magnaflow O/R X-pipe.

Anyone got a sound clip with the difference in sound the X and H produce?

 

[TenorPlayinGuy]

Well I found the sound clip of the magnaflow exhaust system with their Catted X-pipe, I'll check out youtube for others.

 

[Darkwriter77]

I think I'm just gonna try and pick up a stocker on craigslist, and get myself a nice Magnaflow O/R X-pipe.

Anyone got a sound clip with the difference in sound the X and H produce?

Not exactly an even comparison, but here's a comparison video I made a couple years back when I was experimenting with weird exhaust combinations. First is the crappy UPR cat'ed X-pipe with a Pypes Violator cat-back; then there's the Jeg's off-road X-pipe with Dynomax #317676 side-exit mufflers and a BIG exhaust leak (didn't have the header flange tightened up all the way ... oops); then the same combo without the exhaust leak. With cats ahead of it, the Violators actually are pretty civil and sound nice, IMO; without the cats, of course, they're MUCH louder, but you have to keep the RPM's under 2,000 when driving by the po-po to avoid attracting attention.

UPR cat'ed X + Violators/Jeg's O/R X + Dynomaxes Video by That Dave Guy - MySpace Video

I ditched the stupid side-exit setup after about a month and went back to the Violators with Dynomax tails again. I hated the way those Dynomax muffs sounded behind an off-road X; behind an off-road H-pipe, they were good, didn't sound so much like an old pickup truck, but something about an X-pipe and those mufflers just don't make for a good sound.

FWIW, here's someone else's Fox with exactly the same exhaust setup as what I have at this very moment (off-road X and Violator cat-back). Mine pretty much sounds identical...

YouTube - 90 Mustang 5.0 / 2.5" Pypes Xpipe & System / Violator