Hey, guys. Adam here with americanmuscle.com. And today, we're taking a quick look at, listening to,
and installing the GRiP Cat-Back Exhaust, available for the '15 and newer EcoBoost
Fastbacks without Active Exhaust. You should be checking this out for your own EcoBoost if you're
looking to ditch the factory exhaust in favor for one that's gonna give you a louder sound profile,
one that's gonna be more aggressive, bumping up the volume a bit without giving you any
drone inside the cabin that we all know a lot of aftermarket exhausts for EcoBoost tend to do.
Now before we jump into the sound clip, I want to get this out of the way. Obviously, you can't make
an EcoBoost sound like a GT. Your four-cylinder turbo is not gonna sound like a V8 Mustang,
but you can definitely make the EcoBoost sound a lot better and a lot more aggressive. Now this
GRiP cat-back from ARK Performance as you just heard from our sound clips, I'm gonna be giving
three out of five on our loudness meter. Now it's something that's perfect for the daily driver,
someone looking to increase the aggression from their EcoBoost exhaust without getting the drone.
You'll notice that the ARK Performance here GRiP cat-back has a funky muffler setup that you might
not have seen before. ARK Performance builds in the Helmholtz technology into this J-tube here
that's gonna filter out all the higher frequency exhaust sounds and minimize drone,
even eliminating it completely. Now I will say when I first started it up at cold start,
it sounded like it might have a little bit of drone inside,
but once you start getting going and this thing warms up, it sounds really crisp,
really clean, and more importantly, really consistent throughout the RPM band.
I've driven on my fair share of cat-backs for the EcoBoost here,
and a lot of them do tend to have a good amount of drone, especially between 2500
and 3500 RPMs, which is that sweet spot cruise and red light to red light. For daily drivers,
that can mean the difference between getting to work with a headache or without one. Now this
guy here was pretty much drone-free, which is a really pleasant driving experience. A cold start,
like I said, it's a little bit louder, but as it warms up, red light to red light, you get a really
deep, really aggressive sound, and it stays really consistent throughout the RPM band,
so even at highway speeds, you don't have to worry about drone inside the cabin. Have easy
conversation with your passenger, listen to music without having that overbearing sound inside.
Now there are louder options out there, but the louder you get, the more likely
you're gonna get a little bit more drone. So if you're looking for a nice high-quality system,
this is a really good way to go without the headache. Now the whole system head to toe is
304 stainless steel mandrel-bent tubing, so it's gonna reduce some of those kinks, 304 being the
more premium-quality materials in the category, so you get a really high-quality exhaust,
and ARK Performance did a beautiful job putting this together. The welds look absolutely superb.
Now the cat-back exits the vehicle with those single exhaust tips. They're 4 and 1/2, inches
so a lot bigger than some of the other options out there, slash-cut, double-walled with a polished
finish. Now the polish finish looks really similar to the factory ones, so you stay a little bit
more traditional with this one, but there are stealthier black options out there as well.
Now the cat-back comes in right around 1500 bucks, again a little bit more on the premium side of the
non-Active Exhaust systems out there. If you're looking for an Active exhaust, there are some
of the other options. This one is not gonna be for you. This is for non-Active guys only.
Install, I'm gonna give two out of three wrenches on our difficulty meter. You can drop the whole
factory cat-back in one piece. And of course, this guy goes up in just three pieces, your mid-pipe,
which is a resonator delete Y-pipe, and then, of course, the two tailpipes with the tips and
mufflers built in all in one piece. So with that said, it'll take you about two hours from start
to finish. I'm gonna show you every step of the process. What do you say we get started?
Now the tools used in this install include an impact gun or a ratchet, an extension,
13 and 15-millimeter deep sockets, and I recommend PB B'laster or WD-40 for some lubricant.
First step here, guys, underneath the car to get your factory cat-back out of the way,
grab a 15-millimeter deep socket. We're gonna loosen up the two bolts here on
this band clamp right behind our factory muffler in front of this flex pipe. Now
we don't actually have to remove this. We don't have to remove this hanger either.
We're going from here all the way to the back. Grab your 15 socket and loosen these guys up.
Next up, we're in the rear end here, looking at these two hangers. We don't need to remove
the hangers from the isolators. As a matter of fact, it's way easier just
to unbolt it from the frame itself. So grab a 13-millimeter socket. I'm also gonna use
an extension. And I'm gonna get right over our rear sway bar to get those guys out of the way.
All right. So from here, what you can do is just lift up and swing this guy off because
it's gonna be hooked into that frame slot. We're just gonna unhook these guys to get them down.
All right, guys, so I'm back at the front of the vehicle. I'm gonna use a mallet to just tap
this band clamp back a little bit. We're gonna shuffle this out of position at the front end,
move it back toward me, and slide it out of the hangers above our tips. I got my buddy,
Joe, helping me out here to hold one end. If you're working on the ground,
it's gonna be a lot easier, but if you're in the air like we are,
you might need a helping hand. So I'm gonna use this mallet here to tap this back.
There it is. Come back toward me and slide them out of the hangers and set it aside.
All right. So we got our factory cat-back off of our 2018 EcoBoost, and it's on the
ground here next to our GriP cat-back here from ARK Performance. Now I want to take you through
some similarities and differences between the two kits, and I want to start here at the front
of the vehicle. Now looking at our factory cat-back, you can see that we, of course, have
the factory Y-pipe, but instead of it being an actual Y-pipe, it's more of that resonator pipe.
Now the resonator there is keeping a little bit of that volume down that you'd probably
want to get out of your EcoBoost. And if you're looking at a cat-back like this, you're probably
looking to remove that altogether. Instead of just diminishing the volume, it's also gonna
diminish some of the airflow. It's gonna give you an airflow restriction that can rob you of
a couple of horsepower and torque that you'd get otherwise with a more free-flowing exhaust pipe.
Now your GRiP cat-back here from ARK Performance uses a full 304 stainless steel Y-pipe that is
a resonator delete. Now getting rid of that resonator is gonna open up that airflow, gonna
give you a little bit more airflow volume coming through. There aren't as many kinks or blockages
in the way of getting that airflow through the exhaust pipes. This is also gonna be good for
the guys looking for a little bit more volume out of that. With the free-flowing open mid-pipe here,
you get a lot more that airflow through, which is also gonna bump up your aggressive sounds.
Now this Y-pipe here, again, 304 stainless steel, mandrel-bent tubing, so it's reducing any kinks in
the bends for the tubing there, really beautiful welds here throughout the entire system from ARK
Performance, some of the best welds I've seen in an aftermarket cat-back myself.
Moving on there, of course, it's got the single inlet. Because of the four-cylinder,
it's also gonna have the dual outlet here to match your factory dual exhaust.
Moving on there, you'll see that it's got the same mounting points for the hangers there as
your factory one, so we'll have to transfer over those isolators. And then finally,
the huge difference comes in with the mufflers and tips. Now as far as the muffler is concerned,
it's a bullet-style muffler. It's a lot smaller and narrower than your factory muffler. It's
gonna produce the sound you heard from our sound clip earlier on, not too overwhelming,
but definitely louder than some of the more basic daily driver options out there.
And then finally, you're probably thinking to yourself, "What the hell is that thing coming
off the side of it?" That is Helmholtz technology built into what a lot of people call a J-tube.
Now essentially the job of a J-tube there is to remove some of the higher frequencies in the
exhaust gases that would otherwise produce a lot of interior drone inside your car. As you heard
from our sound clips, this exhaust is really deep, it's got a lot of throaty tone to it.
Nothing really high pitched about it, and that's gonna be because of that J-tube there.
All the high frequency is filtered out of that J-tube using Helmholtz technology bounced
around and the sound tubing that it has inside of that, and of course,
it's gonna delete some of that frequency there. So that's why you get no drone inside the cabin
and a really crisp, clean, very unique sound from this ARK Performance GRiP cat-back.
Now the factory tips there are a little bit more aggressive than some of the factory
cat-backs you see on a lot of vehicles, but it still leaves a lot to be desired.
Your new tips from the GRiP cat-back from ARK Performance is a lot more aggressive.
It's gonna fill out the cutout in your rear valance a little bit more than your factory
one did. It's a 4 and 1/2-inch, slash-cut, double-walled, polished
304 stainless steel. So a lot of really high-quality names right in that exhaust
tip there. But at the end of the day, it looks really good, it's got a nice mirror-like shine
to it with a polished finish and the ARK name engraved right in the materials.
Now if you're not really a fan of the more traditional polished tip,
there is also a black version as well. You can get something a little bit more stealthy
that's gonna fit your taste a bit more. Now starting things off, we're gonna have to
transfer over these isolators to our new hangers, and then we'll start with our Y-pipe. What do you
say we get started? All right. First step here, we're gonna grab our factory clamp,
set it on over our cat pipe, making sure it aligns with that little welded-on button there,
slides right in the position. Following up with that, you're gonna put your Y-pipe in position.
Now the Y-pipe does go on in a specific way. There's a welded-on bracket with
an open circle hole here. You want to make sure that's facing down.
All right. Set the Y-pipe in position. You're gonna tighten down that clamp. All right. Once
you have that guy lifted up here, grab your 15 socket and tighten down your factory clamp.
All right. Next step, grab your muffler. I'm gonna start on our driver's side.
You want to lubricate the hangers or the isolators on the frame, which I've already done. I'm gonna
slide the hanger into the tip section first. Once that's through, line it up to the Y-pipe.
Now before we tighten any clamps down, I want to grab that factory isolator. Now, like I said,
you could have done this on the ground, or you can do it here when you start to install.
Just make sure that when you install this guy from your factory exhaust onto the new hanger that
this tab is facing the subframe so it can lock in place there. Slide that guy on, bring it upwards,
hang it up on the frame. Let's not tighten this down just yet. Let's put the other
one up. All right. Same thing on the other side before we tighten our clamps down.
All right. So now we can put the second isolator on the other exhaust
tail pipe hanger. Lift it up and connect it to the frame.
All right. So next you can take those factory 13-millimeter bolts, align those threads,
and put them through by hand. Now
once you got those guys in, grab your 13 socket and extension,
go over the sway bar and tighten them down.
All right. So now we can focus on those clamps. I'm gonna get it nice and snug,
and then we'll come back and tighten it down.
All right. From there, I'm gonna lift up on my muffler to make sure that the tip
is aligned properly and then finish the job here.
All right. Same thing on the other side.
All right. You're good to go. That's gonna wrap up my review and install for the GRiP
Cat-back Exhaust, available with Polished Tips for the '15 and newer EcoBoost Fastbacks without
Active Exhaust. This is a great way to go. Get yours right here at americanmuscle.com.