CAT Back or TURBO Back Exhaust???

[F250Attitude]

I am getting ready to purchase an exhaust for my truck and am struggling with the decision of whether to go CAT Back or Turbo Back on the exhaust. Obviously more flow is better in general but a few red flags still stand in my way of going for the Turbo Back.

1) I have heard that the 6.0L needs some backpressure as to not overspin an already weak turbo. A service tech at my local dealer said that if the computer doesn't sense enough backpressure it can affect performance and potentially damage the turbo?

2) Is the larger downpipe really worth the effort when it will eventually neck back down (to 3inch) to flow through the CAT?

3) How hard is it to replace the downpipe? Plan to do this in my driveway and I'm pretty mechanically inclined. Just heard that getting the old downpipe off and the new one on is a bit of a challenge.

Thanks in advance for the responses!

[tannerj]

I just did mine so I can tell you about the down pipe... I purchase the MBRP Turbo back exhaust and in the instruction it states you can just cut the down pipe just before the transmission cross-member or you can un-bolt the cros-member to remove the down pipe... MBRP recommend and trained personnel to do the removal of the cross-memember..

I recommend just cutting the down pipe as the instructions say to do (if you purchased MBRP)... It was alot easier and quicker...

As for the back pressure I am not help in that area... Though I can tell you this I was a little upset once I installed it due to the fact it looked to me like the down pipe to the cat was no different then stock.... So I was talking to Ted from ID I asked the question and he told me that it is an improvement, you are going from a 3" down pipe to a 3 1/2" down pipe... so you are going to seeing an improvement...

I don't know if this true or not but it made me feel better... so if he is no one tell me that...HAHAHA

well that is my 2 cents....Jarrod

[wdvogt01]

i wish i would have cut my downpipe, instead it turned into a 4 hour mess, but it works good. i first bought 5in MBRP catback and then i bought 4in downpipe from AFE, all went well to gether sounds great and i have accufab elbow and airaid stage 2 intake and sct set on tow agg. no problems runs great. good luck to anyone that doesnt cut the downpipe.

[NCfarmboy]

Cut the downpipe. Turbo back is the only way to go.

[F250Attitude]

Forgive me if this sounds like a dumb question but what would be the advantage to not cutting the downpipe? Do people really spend the time to reinstall the stock exhaust in the future?

[rubberducky]

Some prolly keep it incase the next owner HAS to have the stock exhaust or something.

[mlhaynes8302]

Or you can reinstall to pass inspection...you know, if for some reason your current setup won't. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[dustymoran]

How many of you have tried to rewrap your downpipe with the heat wrap or do you all just not worry about it? I was just wondering because my exhaust is going in this weekend and i have lots of heat wrap in the garage from my old F250 build.