Video Review & Installation

Hey, guys, Adam here with americanmuscle.com. Today, we're taking a closer look at listening to and installing the SLP Loudmouth II Catback exhaust available for the '99 to '04 GT and Mach 1 Mustangs. Now, if you're the owner of that 4.6 New Edge, you might be in the market for a new catback to not only give you a more aggressive tone but also a better appearance at the rear end and, overall, just a better sounding Mustang. Now, as you heard from our sound clips, I'm gonna give this one three-out-of-five on our loudness meter. It's definitely not the loudest of the loud, but it is absolutely aftermarket. It has a rich, deep, throaty aggression to it, and it's not too overwhelming. Now, inside the cabin, not a whole lot of drone, if any at all. At fifth gear on the highway, there was a little bit of drone, but it was pretty tamed. Nothing too overwhelming inside the cabin. Now, other than that, this thing is going to be pretty loud at wide-open throttle, and on deceleration, you can expect some backfire, which, personally, I really like. Now, the tips are three-and-a-half inch 304 stainless steel, which is a nice polished finish. Looks a little bit better than the factory but still very similar in design, only these are gonna have the SLP logo almost laser etched on the top end, which I personally think looks really good as well. Now, the rest of the system is completely modular, which is something to keep in mind. So if you pick up this system, and later on down the road maybe you want to change out those bullet-style mufflers, the modular system will allow you to do so. So what that basically means is all you have to do is unbolt those bullet-style mufflers or resonators from SLP and swap them out with another SLP product. Or if you have something of the same size that would fit, you can do so. The modular system allows you to change it up whenever you want. This one comes in right around the $500 mark, and it's gonna get two-out-of-three wrenches on our difficulty meter. Now, guys, there is a very small amount of cutting involved, very small amount of cutting. Some guys might be lucky enough to be able to slide this out without having to cut. But right behind your factory tips, you may need to cut that pipe in half. That's going to make it a lot easier for you to slide the over axle pipe over the axle to get your factory exhaust uninstalled. Other than that, very simple system, bolt-on, very simple hand tools required. I'm gonna take you through every step of the process. Takes you about two hours from start to finish. What do you say we get started? Tools used in this install include an impact gun, 14 and 15-millimeter deep sockets. Hanger removal tool is definitely recommended as well as PB B'laster or WD-40, and we used a Sawzall for cutting. This is a much bigger Sawzall than you need, but a cutting tool of your choice and a metal cutting blade. All right, guys, the first step of the uninstall here to get your factory catback out of the way is to grab a 14-millimeter deep socket. We're gonna remove the four bolts holding on your factory catback to your mid-pipe. As you can see there's two flanges, one on each pipe here, both of which has two bolts. I'd recommend grabbing some PB B'laster before you get started, hit those bolts with a little PB. These New Edges can be pretty old and sometimes pretty rusted and corroded, so having PB B'laster definitely makes life a little easier. We've already taken care of that as you can see, so let's loosen them up and get them off.All right, next up we're gonna grab a hanger removal tool and pop these hangers out of their isolators. Now, on each side there's two of them, one on the pipe and then one over here on the muffler itself. So, grab a hanger tool and pop them off. All right, do the same thing on the other side. All right, guys, at this point, I want to stop down and take a quick second to explain the cutting situation. Now, in some cases, guys, you may not need to cut if you're able to slide your over axle pipe out of the hangers by the tips all in one piece. But depending on your situation, you may need to cut right here where you see this clamp. Now, we've already taken care of the cutting in the past for previous videos so we have a clamp right here, but I still want to show you guys what that cutting is like. We still have footage of that, so I'm gonna show you guys some of that footage of us cutting this factory exhaust off. So, your Sawzall or something similar will do the trick. If you're not comfortable with that, of course, taking it to a professional is the way to go. But if you have the right tools, you can definitely get it done. I'm gonna remove this clamp, but let's see how that cutting is taken care of. All right, so once that's disconnected and cut, you can see the over axle pipe with the muffler hangs down on the axle itself. You can just pull it out in one piece. All right, guys, we finally got our factory catback off of our '99 GT sitting on the ground next to our SLP Loudmouth II. I want to take you through some of the similarities but mainly the big differences between the two kits, and there are quite a few to mention. Your factory catback here, as you can see, over the years gets pretty rusted, corroded. Doesn't look very good. Some of the hangers might be looking a little bad as well as the flange, so it's good to update all the systems with something of a better quality. The SLP Loudmouth here is using two-and-a-half inch 409 stainless steel mandrel bent tubing, mandrel bent meaning it is going to be a lot smoother, better for airflow, less restrictive than your factory catback that can have some kinks and some of those bends. 409 is also a better quality material than your factory catback, so it's not going to end up looking like this after a few years. It'll definitely hold up a lot longer. Now, the rest of your system here includes bullet-style mufflers, which are the small muffler almost resonators that you see, which is a huge difference from the factory option. That's really what's gonna convert this to almost like a straight-pipe-style design. There's not a whole lot of baffling involved here. You can pretty much see right through them, which is creating that sound you heard. It's creating that noise, the tone, little bit of drone, the raspiness of this catback. It's also going to create a little bit of that backfire. Now, toward the end of the system, you can see that it has a similar tip style to the factory, just a little bit more polished up. Those are three-and-a-half inch polished 304 stainless tips. 304 is the highest quality material on the market, so the tips are gonna hold up a lot longer, which is good because that's really what you're seeing from the exit style of this catback. So the dual exhaust here, the tips coming out the rear are gonna hold up a little bit longer. And, that's gonna be a good thing because they're good to be polished up and have that show car finish. Now, they do have the SLP name embedded in the materials on top. I like when brands put their logo on that tip so you can really represent. Now, we're going to show you guys how to install this. You're gonna use the same isolators from the factory. If your isolators are looking pretty beat up, now is a good time to swap them out. You can pick those up at your local auto parts store. Our's looking pretty good, so we're still going to reuse those. All clamps are included in the kit. You're also going to use a new flange for your connection to your mid pipe, in this case is our H-pipe. So we'll grab that and start there at the flange. All right, grab one of the flanges included in the kit as well as your exhaust pipe that will connect to the flange. Now, there's two different sizes. The smaller one is going to go on your driver side, the longer pipe is going to go on your passenger side. So we're going to show you guys how it works here on our driver side, so we're gonna slide the flange on the exit down to the stopper. Now, that will connect to your factory studs. So, slide those over, and align the studs. They're gonna seat properly inside of each other, then you're gonna grab your factory nuts, and thread those on to the studs just like that. Now, when we tighten these down, you want to leave a little bit of room to make adjustments so we can angle it properly. But, for now, we're gonna have this angled toward the outside of the vehicle. All right, from here, grab your 14 socket, and you can tighten this guy down. But, again, just nice and snug, not too tight. Leave room for adjustment. All right. Now, you can do the same thing on the other side. From here, you can take your SLP muffler, and you're gonna slide that over the exit with one of the clamps installed over the inlet. Once you have that taken care of, grab a 15 socket and tighten down that clamp. All right, do the same thing for both sides. All right, next up is our over axle pipe. Now, you'll know which side's which depending on the hangers. The taller hanger is gonna be on the left side going up to that taller or higher up isolator. So, line that guy up, slide it over the axle, connect it to your muffler with a clamp installed on that inlet. And, before we tighten anything down, slide these hangers into those isolators just like that, and the same thing on the top guy. All right, once that guys in that isolator, you can slide that guy in and then reconnect your pipe. From there, tighten down your clamp. All right, we can keep going with that over axle pipe with the next one for our driver side. Now, that, again, is very specific. You'll figure that one out because it'll go straight toward the isolator where your tip will go. You want to make sure you're using the pipe that makes the tip line up properly. Grab your 15 socket with that clamp and tighten it down. All right, finally, the tip on your driver side. You want to make sure you're sliding it in that isolator first, slide it back as far as you can, and then connect it to your pipe. Perfect. All right, from there, make sure it's aligned, tighten down your clamp. Now, you can just repeat the exact same process on the other side. At this point, make any adjustments that you need to to get everything lined up properly, tighten down all your clamps, and you're good to go. Well, guys, that's gonna wrap up my review and install for the SLP Loudmouth II Catback for the '99 to '04 GT and Mach 1. If you want to pick this one up, you can do so right here at americanmuscle.com.