Our friends over at MBRP offer a bunch of different exhaust system options for the 2011 to 2014 F150 5.0Ls, and they're some of our most popular systems for the Coyote-powered F150s. High off our earlier MBRP 3" single-exit cat-back kit install, we grabbed up MBRP's XP-Series 2.5" Dual Rear Exit Cat-Back Kit for installation and sound testing on our 2012 5.0L F150 FX4 project truck. Being a dual exit cat-back kit, we were expecting an install that was a little bit more involved than a more typical single side exit system, and it certainly turned out that way. The good news is that this kit ended up sounding perfectly decent. While definitely not the loudest or most aggressive F150 cat-back kit that we've tested, the MBRP 2.5" dual-exit system gave our truck a nice, low growl and a pretty good look with its 3" polished tips.
To actually get the system installed on our FX4 project truck, we loaded the system up and drove down to Extreme Performance out in Goodyear, Arizona, to have Marty, Kris, and the guys give us a hand (and by "hand" we mean "do all the work") while we took photos. MBRP's instructions were actually pretty decent, and Kris got right to work stripping off our current exhaust system and getting MBRP's up and running.
The stock cat-back kit is built to keep your truck quiet and features both a forward resonator and mid-mounted muffler. The first step of our cat-back installation was to hit all the piping connections with penetrating oil to help make Kris's life much easier.
After letting the penetrating oil do some work, Kris removed the bolts holding the resonator pipe to both the muffler's pipe and our F150's mid-pipe, before completely removing the whole assembly.
With the resonator pipe out, Kris maneuvered the muffler tube and over-axle pipe out of its hangars, over the axle, and out of our truck.
Now on to the MBRP kit. Step one was to install MBRP's mid-pipe connection tube that features a small resonator just before the outlet. Kris fit the tube into our factory mid-pipe and tightened down the included bolts to finger tightness before using an axle stand to support the tube.
MBRP's 2.5" Dual-Exit Cat-Back kit features a clamp with a built-in hangar that needs to slide through the forward exhaust mount before being fit on to the mid-pipe connection tube. After the clamp was slipped into place, Kris fit MBRP's dual-exit muffler into place and tightened down the clamp with his fingers and supported the muffler with an axle stand.
After the muffler was more or less secure in the mid-pipe tube, Kris fit on clamps over the muffler's outlet tubes in preparation for MBRP's over-axle tubes.
With the clamps in place on the muffler, Kris slipped the two over-axle tubes into the muffler's outlets and made sure the driver's side tube's hangar fit into the bed's exhaust mount.
Kris then rotated the over-axle tubes around a bit to make sure the two outlet tubes would fit past the brake lines and spare tire before fitting them into both the kickover tubes.
The kit comes with a new exhaust mount for the driver's side that Kris installed to put the driver's side outlet tubing into proper position. After bolting it to the truck's frame, Kris put the tubing's hangar through. Note that the brake lines are right up against the pipe.
So the brake line situation. Needless to say, we weren't thrilled with the lack of clearance or fitment there. We're not sure if it was just our kit or if this is just standard operating procedure with this system, but given that several other dual exit kits cleared just fine, we were a bit miffed. To solve the issue, Kris zip tied the lines out of the way, and we tried to avoid any large pot holes or any else that might cause large rear suspension articulation.
Once the brake lines were taken care of, Kris fit on the exhaust tips and starting tightening all the clamps with his impact. The tips look close to the truck in these images, but they did drop down slightly after everything was dialed in.
With everything aligned (the tips took a lot of fiddling) and tightened down, our MBRP Dual-Exit Cat-Back install was complete.
