Hey, guys.
Adam here with americanmuscle.com.
And today, we're taking a closer look at, listening to, and installing the Roush Cat-Back
Exhaust with black tips available for the 2015 and newer EcoBoost Mustangs.
You should be checking this out if you're looking to ditch your very restrictive, very
quiet factory exhaust on your four-cylinder to pick up something that is essentially going
to straight-pipe it from the y-pipe back to the tips.
What that's gonna result in is the four out of five on our loudness meter that you just
heard from our sound clips.
And in my personal opinion, and it's all that this is, I think this is one of the best sounding
cat-backs for our four-banger.
Now listen, we all know you can't make a four-cylinder sound like a V8.
But if you're looking to make it a little bit more aggressive, give it some nicer tone,
maybe a little backfire, especially at redline, this is absolutely gonna be the way to go.
It's not too loud to the point that it would wake your neighbors, but I will say at redline,
you might hear some gunshots coming out the back.
But with that said, some of you guys might love it, some of you guys might not.
But if you're into that backfire and all the back pressure, this is a snap, crackle, and
pop that you wanna have on your own EcoBoost.
The whole kit here is 304 stainless steel from the head back, mandrel-bent tubing better
for air flow, better for power, you can see an increase in horsepower and torque numbers
at the low end.
You can also expect 4-inch powder-coated tips coming out the backslash cut Roush name right
on top there.
We'll take a little bit more of a closer look at the entire system in a little bit side
by side with our factory one.
Just know it looks pretty aggressive coming off the back here, it blends in really nicely
with a rear valance, and I think it's a really good addition to our Eco.
With that said, this kit here is on our 2018 without active exhaust.
So, of course, your sound modes and what you can expect as far as sound quality and tone
can and will differ if you pick up a kit that does retain active exhaust qualities.
This one, in particular, is good for the '15 and newer, obviously, '15 to '17 not having
the active exhaust option.
But for you '18, '19 guys out there with the EcoBoost, keep in mind that some of the options
in the category for the active will definitely change the outcome of the loudness meter rating
that I gave, four out of five for this one without active.
So the entire kit does come in right around 1200 bucks, maybe a little under that $1200
mark, which I think does put it at the more premium end of the spectrum, but it doesn't
really break the bank like some of the $1500 options out there.
You're still getting the highest quality materials and you're getting that Roush name that we
all know and love.
Install, two out of three wrenches on our difficulty meter, no cutting, no welding,
none of that nonsense.
It's a direct bolt-on kit, but it does take a little more experience than the average
Joe.
It's a little bit more involved than a quarter intake, but it's still very, very doable in
the driveway at home with simple hand tools.
I'm gonna take you through every step of the process.
Let's just 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 Blaster or WD-40 for some lubricant.
Now the first step here is to go over to our Y-pipe or our mid pipe.
We're gonna grab a 15-millimeter deep socket.
We're gonna loosen up the bolts right here on this band clamp connecting our factory
resonator to our down pipe.
That's pretty simple.
We're not gonna remove anything just yet, we're just gonna get them nice and loose.
Next step here is to grab an extension and a 13-millimeter socket, whether it be deep
or short.
We're gonna knock off these two brackets holding on our factory hangers to the subframe.
So we're basically gonna grab our extension and go right over the rear sway bar and remove
those 13-millimeter bolts.
Now at this point, basically what we're going to do is just lift these off of the little
notch that they're hung on.
You just push up, pull back, and just rotate them down.
Same thing on the other side.
And the next step here is to knock our whole cat-back off of our '18 Eco.
And I have a helping hand here.
My buddy, Andrew, is gonna give me a hand.
What we're basically gonna do is disconnect it here from our down pipe and then we're
gonna slide them out of the hangers toward me, set the whole thing aside.
We got our factory exhaust off of our 2018 EcoBoost without active exhaust, and we have
it next to our Roush Cat-Back.
And I wanna take you guys through some of the similarities and differences between the
two kits, and really there's nothing but differences.
Our factory option here, starting at the front end of our vehicle where the down pipes would
connect, has that factory resonator.
It's not going to be the case here on our Roush Cat-Back, which means it's not going
to have that air flow restriction, which is going to translate to a little bit more power
and torque, little bit more acceleration, better flow for the air, a better airflow,
and, of course, it's just gonna connect right into that Y-pipe and go down our mandrel-bent
304 stainless steel exhaust.
The quality there of 304 is some of the top-of-the-line materials you can get in the category, better
quality materials and more durable than our factory exhausts.
Now as you can see, this is seeing a little bit of rust and corrosion start to happen
on the factory pipes.
Our EcoBoost is pretty new, doesn't have a whole lot of miles on it.
So you can see how susceptible that is, especially here on the East Coast, we're seeing a lot
of road salt in the wintery months, so it does take a toll on the exhaust pipes.
But if you have that 304 stainless, it's gonna be more durable, it's gonna hold up a lot
longer than something like our factory materials, and like some of the other 409 or aluminized
options in the category.
As you can see, we have the mandrel-bent tubing about two and a half inches, has the factory
hanger locations under the subframe, we will have to transfer over the brackets to our
new ones here.
And then moving on from that, we have a huge difference in the mufflers, especially when
it comes to size.
Our factory mufflers are very big, full of baffling, minimizing that sound, minimizing
the aggression.
And listen, we all know it's a 4-liter, so we don't expect V8 sounds, but giving yourself
a smaller muffler something a little bit more straight pipe, like this race-inspired one
from Roush, really waking that thing up.
Now at the end of that muffler, we have the black-powder coated 4-inch tips a lot larger
and a lot more aggressive than our factory ones.
Now it's not a quad tip, but it is gonna fit directly into our factory rear valance, which
I think is always the plus side.
You don't have to worry about spending a couple of hundred bucks on new valance just to get
your tips to fit.
With that said, it has a Roush name right on top, which is what we expect from Roush,
wrapping a little brand name there.
And I think the black tips are gonna look super stealthy and super aggressive.
It's going to blend in a lot with that rear valance we have on.
With all that in mind, starting at the front end here, we do have to transfer over this
band clamp as well.
We'll pop that on over to our new Y-pipe, then we're gonna transfer over the hanger
brackets and get to the install.
Right, now we're at the front end here, we're just gonna pop this coupler off, which if
you need to, you can just pry apart with your hands and just kind of work backward.
All right, now we can just swap it over to our Y-pipe.
And this is one of those times that if you need help, you can grab a mallet and just
tap this in.
All right, now for these brackets, it's really just a matter of twisting them out of place.
When you're reinstalling these, you just wanna make sure that this lit for the tab up at
the top is facing the front of the vehicle.
At this point, grab your Y-pipe.
And if you'll notice that the inlet side here favors one side over the other, you wanna
make sure that this is going on your driver's side just like your factory one when it came
off.
We're gonna reinstall this up on our piping.
You wanna make sure that this tab here lines up with that retainer button that's welded
on the down pipe.
I'm gonna grab our 15 socket and just tighten down these two nuts.
Next up coming off of our Y-pipe, we're gonna start on our passenger side.
Make sure you have one of your clamps ready to go.
We're actually gonna slide that over the outlet on the Y-pipe.
Right, let slide that back and out of the way.
We're to connect this pipe on our passenger side.
Once you have that, bring that clamp back up, we're just gonna tighten it down.
Now what I'd recommend doing is getting all of your clamps nice and snug, but not over
tightening them.
Leave a little bit of room for adjustment just so we can align everything when it comes
to our tips.
But for now, let's get it snug.
We're gonna do the same thing on our driver side.
Start with our clamp, slide that over the outlet.
connect our pipe.
Right, at this point, you can grab your socket and get this nice and snug.
At this point, we're gonna lift up on the entire exhaust assembly we have on so far,
and we're basically just gonna hang up these brackets back onto their spots on the subframe.
So let's rotate those up,
put them into place.
This is a good time to show you an example of how leaving some room for adjustment come
in handy.
We can rotate these pipes a little bit more freely to help us hang them up.
Right, with that taken care of, let's grab those factory 13-millimeter bolts and tighten
them back down to the subframe.
All right, so I got these 13-millimeter bolts, we're just going to put them on by hand a
couple of threads.
Grab your extension and the 13-deep socket and tighten those down.
Next up, grab your passenger side muffler here.
We're gonna slide over our clamp.
We're gonna connect it to the pipe we just hung on a subframe, but first, we're gonna
slide the hanger into the isolator up by our tip.
It's really just about the angle at which you're sliding in at.
Once you have that in, line these up and connect the pipes.
Now if it makes life a little easier, you can grab a mallet and just tap this in to
get it to connect fully.
You wanna close that gap to make sure they're fully seated.
All right, at this point, grab your 15-socket again and rotate this clamp upward and just
get this nice and snug.
All right, same thing on the other side.
All right, this side went on a whole lot easier, doesn't look like we're gonna need that mallet.
We're gonna rotate this clamp up, get it nice and snug.
At this point, grab one of your tips for the larger clamp around the end there.
We're gonna seat this up at your muffler.
Just take note of the alignment here.
You wanna make sure you're getting this nice and straight.
And now we can tighten down that clamp.
Repeat for the other side.
All right, at this point, make any adjustments you need to to align everything properly,
tighten down all your clamps, and you're good to go.
Well, guys, that's gonna wrap up my review, install, and sound clip of the Roush Cat-Back
exhaust with black tips for '15 and newer EcoBoost Mustang.
If you wanna pick this up, you can do so right here at americanmuscle.com.