Borla S-Type Axle-Back Exhaust with Polished Tips (05-09 Mustang GT, GT500)

Video Review & Installation

Hey, guys. Adam here with americanmuscle.com, and today we're taking a closer look at, listening to and installing the Borla Stinger S-Type Axle-Back with Chrome Tips, available for the '05 to '09 GT and GT500. You should be checking this out as you just heard from our sound clips if you're looking for a more aggressive, throaty, deeper tone from a simple axle-back, rather than going with an entire cat-back replacement. Going with just an axle-back makes it a lot easier on the install and it makes it a lot more affordable while still upgrading that sound. Now, the sound clips as you just heard I'm giving this three out of five on our loudness meter as far as axle-backs are concerned. Obviously, a full cat-back can increase the volume but with axle-backs, this guy is right there in the dead center, perfect for the daily driver looking for a good bark. Now, the nice thing about Borla is they offer the top quality materials in the category, 304 stainless steel, 3-inch mandrel-bent tubing, 4-inch slash-cut double-walled, polished stainless steel tip so it looks a hell of a lot better than your factory tips which are basically just bare metal. This guy here is a huge upgrade.Now, if you're looking for something a little bit stealthier, they do offer a black chrome option which is a mirror-like shine on a black finish for a stealthier, more aggressive look there. Now, the nice thing about this one is the price tag stays right around $600, making it again one of the more affordable options in terms of exhaust upgrades. It's a little bit pricier than some of the other axle-backs because Borla is the top quality, but it's still not gonna break the bank like some of the full cat-backs would. Now, the Stinger S-Type here is the middle of the road option in terms of volume in the Borla series lineup which is the Touring, which is more mellow, the Stinger, which is this one here as you heard from our sound clips, and the ATAK, which is the loudest of the loud that they offer, so right there in the middle. If you want more volume, ATAK's the way to go, if you want it a little bit quieter but still with a deep tone, Touring is the way to go. With that said, install, guys, is gonna get two out of three wrenches on our difficulty meter. There's no cutting involved. Swapping an axle-back out does not require you to cut. All you have to do is unbolt the clamp, take out a couple of the hanger brackets from the frame and swap them out.Now, the install is gonna take you about an hour, maybe two from start to finish depending on your personal experience. I'll walk you through that process, let's get started. Tools used in the install include an impact gun, an extension, quarter-inch ratchet, 13-millimeter short, deep and swivel sockets are recommended to make life easier, a 15-millimeter deep socket, a hanger removal tool, and PB Blaster or something similar. Step number one, guys, I'm gonna show you how to do this on our passenger side and you'll just repeat it on the driver, it's an exact mirror image. So, the first thing you wanna do is grab a 15-millimeter deep socket, we're gonna loosen up the clamp holding the factory muffler to the rest of the exhaust, and then we're gonna remove all the hanger brackets. Now, I recommend removing the brackets from the frame instead of the hangers from the isolators and brackets. You can try to squeeze those hangers out but it's just much easier to just disconnect the entire bracket assembly from the frame. And I'll show you guys that in just a second. But first off, let's get that clamp loose.Next step directly above the tip you'll see this hanger going into the isolator bracket, instead of trying to slide that out, I'm gonna remove this bolt, it's a 13-millimeter, and the one up above it. For the first one, I'm gonna use a deep socket and an impact gun along with an extension. Now, because the top one is at a weird angle, let's switch over to a ratchet. Directly above that, you see that other 13-millimeter. I'm using a quarter-inch ratchet along with a 13-millimeter deep socket. Now, when I go to loosen this up, my hand's gonna pretty much block it there. But you guys just wanna take note that it's directly above the bolt that we just removed. Again, it's a really tight squeeze and it's hard to see but you're gonna get that guy off. Once you loosen it up, you can usually get it off by hand. All right, just like that. There it is. Next up we're on the opposite side of the muffler. So, on the outside of our passenger side, if you look straight up onto the frame directly above the muffler, you'll see another 13 on the frame right here next to the isolator and hanger.Now, again, I'm not gonna slide the hanger out of the isolator, I'm just gonna remove the bolt from the frame. Then there's one more underneath of it which is actually on top of the muffler that's hard to get to, but we just wanna do this one first. And again, it's gonna be hard to see with my hand up there getting it off, but you can just fit your hand and arm up through the muffler and ratchet that guy off. All right, just like that. Next step is pretty difficult but because our clamp is loose, we need to slide the pipe out of the rest of the exhaust over the axle there. So, what we're gonna do now is just grab the muffler and wiggle that guy down, try to disconnect it because we have to shuffle the whole muffler assembly forward in order to be able to get to the last bolt. There we go. Next step, you can see that 13-millimeter that was directly above the muffler, I'm gonna switch over to a 13-millimeter swivel socket just to make life a little easier. Keep in mind, guys, that once this comes down, the entire muffler assembly is coming down with it all in one piece. So, make sure you have it supported.All right, once you have that bolt free, bring the muffler down and set it aside. So, we got our factory muffler and axle-back off of our '06 GT behind me and it's next to our Borla Stinger S-Type here on the table, let's go through some similarities and differences. And obviously, this is just a small portion of the entire exhaust system. The axle-back is really just the muffler from the axle back to the tips, axle-back. With that said, the Borla Stinger S-Type here is significantly smaller in terms of size there with the muffler compared to your factory one. Your factory one's got a lot of baffling, a lot of chambers in the inside that are really muffling that sound. And the Stinger S-Type here from Borla is that bullet-style muffler, so it's shaped like that bullet in that cylinder compared to the really wide factory finish. This is gonna have a little baffling on the inside, but it's gonna have just enough to really cancel out some of those higher frequencies to make sure there isn't any drone on the inside of the cabin. But it's gonna give you the volume that you heard from our sound clips earlier on.The S-Type there is the middle-of-the-road option in terms of volume in the Borla lineup, still keeping the top quality 304 stainless polished stainless steel tip on this one compared to their black chrome option in the category. Now, their lineup typically goes Borla Touring, which is really mellow, Borla Stinger, which is what you have here and what you heard earlier, that perfect daily driver sound, and their Borla ATAK, which is their loudest of the loud of course. Now, of course, an axle-back isn't gonna be as loud as a full ATAK cat-back but in terms of axle-backs, this is still really aggressive. The tip itself is a 4-inch slash-cut double-walled polished stainless steel, also 304 stainless, which is gonna hold up in the long run. Great for guys located in wintry weather areas, seeing a lot of road salt like we do here on the East Coast. That's gonna hold up in the long run because you know road salt can take its toll on exhaust materials, 304 is gonna hold up with corrosion and rust resistance.Install is gonna be a whole lot easier than the uninstall, getting the factory one off because this is so much bigger. We're gonna swap over the factory hanger brackets, slide those onto the new hangers, and then when you put it up, you have all this room to access where those bolts are going whereas with the factory muffler, it was really tight because of the size. So, this is gonna be significantly easier. At this point, let's just slide these off, slide them on and get going. First step here is gonna be to grab those factory brackets off of the stock muffler. You just slide them off. Slide them on in the same position on the new hangers. I've already taken care of the back one. Make sure you have a clamp on the end, let's connect it to the pipe first. Lift up your entire assembly, slide the pipes together and we're gonna tighten down our clamp. Perfect. All right, next, let's start by swinging up those brackets and reconnecting them with the factory bolts. I'm gonna put both of these in before I tighten them down. Let's do the one underneath too.All right, this one is a little tight. Just get that guy threaded in as much as you can and then we'll tighten both down after the next bracket is attached. All right, just for clarity, right above that muffler there is the one bolt going into the frame, and on the side, up on the side of the frame, there's another one. Next, let's put them in for the front one. Next we're doing the same thing right above the tip. Bring that bracket down, put your bolt through. And we're doing the same thing right above it, right here. All right, grab your 13-millimeter socket and tighten down all 4 of those. For the top one switching back over to a ratchet. All right, let's tighten down the back. All right. Do the same thing for the other bracket. Switching over to a short socket to finish up the one above the muffler. Finally, let's tighten down our clamp. Repeat on the other side and you're good to go. That's gonna wrap up my review and install for the Borla Stinger S-Type Axle-Back with Chrome Tips for the '05 to '09 GT and GT500. Get yours right here at americanmuscle.com.