We here at Stage 3 Motorsports are, like, totally BFFs with the guys and gals over at Stainless Works. Like, totally. They make a great product and put a ton of effort into making their cat-back exhaust systems sound amazing. Their 2011 to 2014 F150 5.0L Dual Rear Exit Cat-Back System sounds outright awesome. Deep, throaty, much louder than stock sound, with low drone, hardly any rasp, and no popping all wrapped up in a kit made from 304 stainless steel. There's just not much to complain about, and after we did get the system installed, it quickly became one of our favorites. This kit just sounds good without being too over-the-top, and was the perfect way to add an awesome exhaust note to our 2012 F150 5.0L FX4 Project Truck.
So, the bad news first. This was not the easiest system to install. It's a dual-exit system with two mufflers and just comes with a lot of hardware and tubing to begin with. Secondly, the instructions included in the kit are pretty bad. There's a grand total of three images "detailing" how the system is supposed to fit together. Thirdly, the bolts that are meant to attach the mid-pipe connection to the Y-pipe are not the best quality, and Kris – who's a fine specimen of a man, but not a ripped superhuman monster – sheared one of the bolts while tightening on the Nyloc nut and ended up cutting the other off when it got jammed up. Needless to say, our install wasn't off to the best of starts.
The good news is that once you start fitting everything together, the kit makes makes sense and fits extremely well. Not to mention, the end result is awesome and this kit is the best-sounding system that we've put on our truck so far. We recommend finding some better bolts (stainless M10s and some washers/nuts would be best) and using our instructions will definitely save you some headaches. Anyway, on to our install:
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.
Kris began installing the Stainless Works kit by attaching the mid-pipe connection tube to our truck's Y-pipe. Again, we recommend using better nuts and bolts than the ones that Stainless Works includes in their kit.
With the mid-pipe tubing in place, Kris installed the splitter connection after looping a clamp over it and leaving it loose to help align the tips later.
From the splitter, install the passenger's side muffler connect pipe and loop the clamp with the welded-on hangar over the tubing. Slide the hangar into your truck's factory exhaust mount. Don't tighten it as of yet, because the exhaust will probably shift as the other clamps and components are tightened down.
After the driver's side muffler connect is in place, install the passenger side pipe into the splitter and loop a clamp over it for later.
With both the connection tubes in place, Kris installed both of the mufflers included in this kit. Turn them each on their sides with their bodies pointing toward the bed. Slip a clamp over their outlets.
Now Kris attached an over-axle tube to each of the mufflers. Stainless works should have them marked for your convenience. Then slide on their clamps.
Once the over-axle tubes are in place and fairly secure, Kris installed the tailpipes onto either side of our truck. Note: the hangars in these images are from our earlier Borla ATAK Cat-Back Install. Stainless Works' kit comes with a set of very different hangars.
One of the more interesting pieces of Stainless Works kit is a unique hangar bracket that fits into the rear exhaust mount of our F150 that then holds both over-axle tubes in place. First, slide the hangar in through the factory exhaust mount.
Then find the two rounded band clamps included in this kit and strap each of them around the two over-axle pipes and push their threaded ends through the hangar bracket. Once through, tighten on the nuts. You'll have to most of it by feel, but it's not overly difficult.
With everything more or less in place, Kris installed Stainless Works included hangars onto the leaf spring perches using the factory bolts.
After the hangars were installed, Kris installed the bushings onto the hangar clamps and bolted them on to the truck.
Everything looked good in regards to clearances and fitments, so Kris went back through the whole kit and started tightening everything back up. We recommend tightening one clamp at a time and checking your tailpipes' alignment after each clamp to make sure everything stays looking pretty. Make sure to slide the hangar clamp into the forward OEM mount last, as it may try to slide back out as you tighten everything up. As we tightened everything, our mufflers came a little too close to the bed for comfort, so we angled them slightly for better clearance.
After Kris got everything tightened down and our tailpipes looking straight, he clamped on and aligned the tips included in the package.
And that completed our install. While a little problematic at the beginning, everything worked out, and the kit fits and sounds pretty darn nice.
