MarkDawn Houlahan
Active Member
Having a hard time getting an appointment with the Ford shop that has a dyno I opted to look elsewhere to get our system dyno tested in time for the 2002 Central Florida Sport Trac Meet. A coworker told me about Mike Norris and Norris Motorsports (www.norris-motorsports.com, (407) 656-2600) in Ocoee, FL. While Mike is a diehard GM tech and works mainly on 500 horsepower Corvettes, Camaros, and Vipers, he put some time aside in his busy schedule to dyno our Sport Trac. Mike is an all right guy and says he’ll dyno just about anything, so give him a call. His Dynojet 248-C gave us the before and after numbers with full printouts.
I decided to remove the stock exhaust in one piece just in case the Mrs. wasn’t happy with what I did to “her†Sport Trac. To facilitate one piece removal the rear sway bar is unbolted from the body (18mm) and pivoted downwards while the right rear shock is unbolted (15 and 18mm) and pulled down off of the spring perch. If you are doing this in your driveway (I used the dyno lift for better pictures) it is possible to remove the system in one piece by removing the right rear tire as well. Otherwise, break out the sawz-all and go crazy.
The stock system is bolted to the converter assembly with two 15mm bolts. These bolts should be fairly easy to extricate unless your ST has lived in harsh weather climates of the north. Then use some penetrating oil or a small propane torch to free their death grip.
At the rear of the muffler is the first insulated hanger you will find as you work your way back. The two hangers at this location support the most weight so be careful when prying the hangers out of the rubber isolators. If the isolators have a death grip on the hangers a shot of WD-40 will get them slippery and come right off. I taped a section of cardboard over the tailpipe to prevent scratching the bumper cover as I pried the hangers out. Once all the hangers are free the exhaust is slid back to clear the crossmember and then slid forward and down to clear the rear axle and suspension.
Here’s a shot of the stock exhaust in one piece after we got it out from under our ST. The welded system is about 12 feet long and I had fun getting it home in the bed of our ST!
The new Bassani stainless steel after-cat system is laid out here before installation. The kit consists of a fully welded stainless steel case muffler, muffler inlet pipe, muffler outlet pipe, over axle extension, and a polished stainless steel tip.
The only stumbling block was that our factory bolts didn’t fit the new flange on the Bassani muffler inlet pipe. My guess is this kit, designed off of an ’01, used bolts with a smaller shoulder. The bolts on our ’02 had a huge shoulder with some sort of spring over it. A quick pass with a drill bit made them big enough with no problems. I later talked to the Bassani tech people and they say this change happened on many of Fords for ’02.
With the muffler inlet pipe and muffler bolted to the converter finger tight (which causes it to droop out of our picture here) the muffler outlet pipe can be snaked over the rear axle housing and placed into the rubber isolators as shown here. I did notice an extra hanger on this pipe right above the axle housing that our ST did not have a rubber isolator for. This is for a hanger found on some ’01 STs. Another one of Ford’s famous Job 1/Job 2 fun.
The over axle extension slips on easily and is secured, as the muffler to inlet pipe is, with these 360-degree Accuseal band clamps. These clamps allow for a precise seal without pinching or damaging the pipe. If you need to readjust the system later simply loosen the clamp to make your adjustment.
The extension, when installed, positions the exit of the Bassani after-cat to the rear, not the side of the bed like the stock system. There is only one part number for the Sport Trac system at this time but there are possible plans to make the system exit an end user choice by including both side and rear exit extensions in future kits. The Bassani tech people are looking at it for a future upgrade to the part number.
The polished stainless tip slips over the extension and is secured with a stainless steel clamp. The slash cut tip, though it looks like chrome, is stainless and fully polished. The tip will not chip like chrome ones do.
The dyno chart here shows the power band improvements from 2,600 rpm through to 5,000 rpm. The solid gains in this area saw five to seven horsepower and nine to eleven ft./lbs. of torque. This is with no other modifications too. A cold air filter system and a chip designed to take advantage of the exhaust would certainly help, and are on the agenda for installation and dyno testing. Stay tuned.
I decided to remove the stock exhaust in one piece just in case the Mrs. wasn’t happy with what I did to “her†Sport Trac. To facilitate one piece removal the rear sway bar is unbolted from the body (18mm) and pivoted downwards while the right rear shock is unbolted (15 and 18mm) and pulled down off of the spring perch. If you are doing this in your driveway (I used the dyno lift for better pictures) it is possible to remove the system in one piece by removing the right rear tire as well. Otherwise, break out the sawz-all and go crazy.
The stock system is bolted to the converter assembly with two 15mm bolts. These bolts should be fairly easy to extricate unless your ST has lived in harsh weather climates of the north. Then use some penetrating oil or a small propane torch to free their death grip.
At the rear of the muffler is the first insulated hanger you will find as you work your way back. The two hangers at this location support the most weight so be careful when prying the hangers out of the rubber isolators. If the isolators have a death grip on the hangers a shot of WD-40 will get them slippery and come right off. I taped a section of cardboard over the tailpipe to prevent scratching the bumper cover as I pried the hangers out. Once all the hangers are free the exhaust is slid back to clear the crossmember and then slid forward and down to clear the rear axle and suspension.
Here’s a shot of the stock exhaust in one piece after we got it out from under our ST. The welded system is about 12 feet long and I had fun getting it home in the bed of our ST!
The new Bassani stainless steel after-cat system is laid out here before installation. The kit consists of a fully welded stainless steel case muffler, muffler inlet pipe, muffler outlet pipe, over axle extension, and a polished stainless steel tip.
The only stumbling block was that our factory bolts didn’t fit the new flange on the Bassani muffler inlet pipe. My guess is this kit, designed off of an ’01, used bolts with a smaller shoulder. The bolts on our ’02 had a huge shoulder with some sort of spring over it. A quick pass with a drill bit made them big enough with no problems. I later talked to the Bassani tech people and they say this change happened on many of Fords for ’02.
With the muffler inlet pipe and muffler bolted to the converter finger tight (which causes it to droop out of our picture here) the muffler outlet pipe can be snaked over the rear axle housing and placed into the rubber isolators as shown here. I did notice an extra hanger on this pipe right above the axle housing that our ST did not have a rubber isolator for. This is for a hanger found on some ’01 STs. Another one of Ford’s famous Job 1/Job 2 fun.
The over axle extension slips on easily and is secured, as the muffler to inlet pipe is, with these 360-degree Accuseal band clamps. These clamps allow for a precise seal without pinching or damaging the pipe. If you need to readjust the system later simply loosen the clamp to make your adjustment.
The extension, when installed, positions the exit of the Bassani after-cat to the rear, not the side of the bed like the stock system. There is only one part number for the Sport Trac system at this time but there are possible plans to make the system exit an end user choice by including both side and rear exit extensions in future kits. The Bassani tech people are looking at it for a future upgrade to the part number.
The polished stainless tip slips over the extension and is secured with a stainless steel clamp. The slash cut tip, though it looks like chrome, is stainless and fully polished. The tip will not chip like chrome ones do.
The dyno chart here shows the power band improvements from 2,600 rpm through to 5,000 rpm. The solid gains in this area saw five to seven horsepower and nine to eleven ft./lbs. of torque. This is with no other modifications too. A cold air filter system and a chip designed to take advantage of the exhaust would certainly help, and are on the agenda for installation and dyno testing. Stay tuned.
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