The Magnaflow Clamp-On Tru-X X-Pipe is available for any '11 to '14 GT owner who is looking
to swap out their mid-pipe for an X-pipe that produces a raspier race car growl while allowing
you to retain your factory cats.
Upgrading to this option will not only sound better, but it will also help with airflow
leading to a slight horsepower and torque increase.
This will require you to cut your factory H-pipe off, and the Magnaflow X-pipe will
clamp right onto your cats.
Now, with that said, I'm giving that two out of three wrenches on our difficulty meter,
well, a soft two out of three wrenches, since it isn't the most difficult thing in the world,
but the cutting does add an extra step.
Now, the sound of an X-pipe is one that really makes a big difference, not only in tone,
but volume as well.
Now, obviously, the X-pipe bears its name because of the X shape of the tubing.
They're welded together right in the middle here to form that X shape.
Now, this helps the air flow through the pipes easier without any restriction, and it also
gives it a raspier, louder sound.
Now, keeping your factory cats will help to keep the volume down a bit so they won't produce
as much drone, if at all.
Now, an off-road mid-pipe, on the other hand, will have a bit of drone with less restriction.
Either way, X-pipes are known to be a little more aggressive than an H-pipe.
Now, an H-pipe, on the other hand, has that cross-over pipe separating the two sides.
That H design will restrict the airflow just a bit, which may drop a few horsepower, but
it gives a deeper and throatier growl than an X-pipe would.
Obviously, the sound will differ depending on the cat-back you pair them up with, so
ultimately, you can customize both tone and volume that your 5-liter produces, regardless
of your choice, but know that they do differ.
Now, as far as power is concerned, Magnaflow has released their own Dyno results, and they
show that you're looking at around a 14 to 20 horsepower gains, and single-digit torque
gains with these installed.
That's a pretty significant gain for something that does not require a tune to work.
However, a tune would really help to maximize performance gains these exhaust components
can produce, since they are very impactful mods.
The materials included make a difference as well.
Now, these are made from three-inch mandrel-bent stainless steel tubing, which gives you the
maximum amount of airflow that a mid-pipe can offer, especially since it's an X-pipe.
Magnaflow makes one of the more premium mid-pipes in the category because materials are so high-quality,
which will last a lot longer and will take more of a beating under your car, as opposed
to some of the aluminized options.
I wanna quickly make note that these are stock length X-pipes, not shorties.
What that basically means is, if you're picking a set of long tube headers up or if you've
already got a set, then you'll need to be shopping in the shorty mid-pipe category,
as this option will not fit.
These are built for stock manifolds or shorty headers, since they are a bit too long to
work with your long tubes.
If you're going for long tubes, you might wanna check out some of the Kooks options
if you're into sticking with the premium ones in the category.
If you're looking to pick this one up, it runs just under the $450 mark because of the
better stainless steel and high-quality construction.
It's definitely worth it for the guys looking to keep their check engine light off without
going and picking up any extra pieces.
Otherwise, you would need a tune to turn the light off, or MIL illuminators to plug into
the O2 sensors.
Now, catted mid-pipes like this are a great way for guys to pick it up without having
to worry about, you know, completely unrestricted airflow, someone who wants to keep it street
legal without the check engine light popping on.
Now, this particular option that doesn't come with attached cats is more of the affordable
version for the guys looking to do just a little extra work to save some money.
If you don't wanna do any of that cutting stuff and you wanna kind of bypass that and
get a direct bolt on, you can spend a little bit more for a mid-pipe that comes with cats
already on it.
Now, this installation, as I mentioned, does require a small amount of cutting because
it doesn't include the cats, so you'll need to cut the factory mid-pipe off in order to
clamp this one on.
Now, it's not the toughest job in the world, but because of the cutting, I'm giving it
the soft two out of three wrenches on our difficulty meter.
Before we can install our after-market Magnaflow X-pipe, we have to uninstall the factory H-pipe.
There's gonna be four bolts on the middle side toward your catalytic converters here,
and there's two bolts, one on each side, toward your engine.
Now, this is gonna be very simple.
These two back here are 15-millimeter, these two up here are gonna be a 13-millimeter,
so you grab your socket, hook it up to your ratchet if you have an air ratchet.
Obviously, if you're working in a shop, very, very simple stuff.
We're working on a lift, that also makes your life easier, but jack stands will definitely
do the trick.
Take our 13-mil here.
Now, typically the mid-pipe would need to be cut out, but since ours has previously
been cut, we were able to just unbolt it.
Guys at home with a bone stock exhaust will need a Sawzall or a cutting tool of their
choice on deck.
Now, remember, if you've recently run your car, if you're pulling it into a shop, your
exhaust might be pretty hot, so gloves will definitely come in handy.
You don't wanna burn yourself.
Safety is obviously a top priority.
Once the two clamps on the front are loosened up, you can take a 15-millimeter socket and
work on the two band clamps in the back.
These will have two bolts for each side, so four bolts total.
Once you have your clamps all loosened up, you'll feel your exhaust from the middle start
to droop down a little bit.
That's simply because there are no hangers in the middle here.
The bolts from the X-pipe are what's holding it up in the center.
So, once you loosen those up, that'll drop down, and a pole jack will keep the rest of
the exhaust kind of in place as you work on your X-pipe swap.
Once your pole jack is in place holding up your exhaust here, just kind of muscle the
H-pipe off and out of the clamps.
Muscle those back, and those will fall out.
The back side, once your clamps are loose on the back side, these will actually just
slip right out of their clamps, once they're loose enough.
This one we might have to loosen up just a little bit more.
Once we do, this'll pop right out.
Now that we have our factory H-pipe out of the way, the Magnaflow X-pipe is gonna go
on next, exactly the same process, just the reverse order.
So we're gonna use our factory clamps, you're gonna wanna put these up into their locations.
All right.
Once you have your X-pipe in place, and the clamps are lined up over top of the round
opening, the outlet, you're going to take your 13-millimeter socket, the same as we
did for stock, and tighten up these clamps.
Once you have one side on and you have your pole jack holding up your X-pipe, you'll just
muscle the other side on with these band clamps.
Now, this one can be a bit tricky because you got to fight them on, but once you get
them lined up, you can kind of twist those band clamps into place.
Now, once you have the band clamp into place, take your 15-millimeter socket, same as the
factory one, just going in reverse order, you'll tighten up these nuts.
The clamps will tighten together, and make sure this little pinched section completely
connects together to make sure it's an airtight seal.
All right.
That just about does it for our Magnaflow Clamp-On Tru-X X-Pipe.
Now, before you get your vehicle on the ground and on the road, you wanna make sure all your
clamps are properly secured and straight, making sure all your pipes match up perfectly,
so that there aren't any exhaust leaks.
Now, if there are, make a few adjustments, make sure all the clamps are tightened, any
air leaks will result in that exhaust leak and you will hear that once you fire it up.
Now, we had a few adjustments to make ourselves, we finished that up, but now we're good to
get it on the road, so if you like this video and the Magnaflow Clamp-On Tru-X X-Pipe, you
might wanna check it out right here at americanmuscle.com.