Like tens of thousands of fellow enthusiasts, we had the opportunity to attend SEMA last week to see what new and exciting products were available for our BOSS 302's.

Of all the various exhaust system manufacturers, it seems that Kook's has been the most aggressive in offering various components for our consideration. In particular, Kook's has an H-Pipe that is structured to retain the Boss' unique side pipes. We really like this option as it allows owners to have some control over the quality and loudness of the exhaust - just as we do with the OEM system. This BOSS-unique H-Pipe is available both with and without CATs depending on what you want. Here are a few pics of their BOSS H-Pipe.







For those that may not care about retaining the side pipe - especially those that are after every last inch of weight savings, Kook's offers both an H-Pipe and an X-Pipe in a non-BOSS specific format. They will fit our BOSS 302's and the side pipes can be eliminated. Both of these X and H Pipes are also available with and without CATs.

Having chosen a mid-pipe, Kook's also now offers a full 3" CAT-back (from the mid, H or X Pipe back through the exhaust tips.) This CAT-back will work with any of the mid-pipes and even works for the OEM configuration. This CAT-back system includes fully polished mufflers and 4" polished exhaust tips.

Forward of the mid-pipe, Kook's offers some very nice full-stainless headers for our Coyote motor. The headers all have 3" collectors and are available in 1 5/8", 1 3/4, and 1 7/8" primary tubes. If you have - or plan to have NOS or forced induction, then you might consider the 1 7/8" headers. Otherwise, we would recommend the 1 3/4" primaries. Of all the headers that we saw at the show, the Kook's are hard to find fault with. The have very nice (thick!) flanges and there's a lot of hand finish work done within each of the primary tubes. Many other headers are not finished as well as the Kook's.

Cool Tech builds and maintains (3) 2012 Laguna Secas. We have ordered the complete Kook's exhaust system for each of them. We will be using the Kook's headers with 1 3/4" headers, the CAT'd BOSS-unique H-Pipe which retains the side pipes, and the CAT-back system with Kook's mufflers and tips. Please watch this forum as we will be reporting back on the weight differences compared to OEM as well as the perfomance gains measured on an objective (trusted) dyno.

Finally, if you decide that the Kook's components are attractive to you, we would appreciate if you would consider purchasing from us. As many of you already know - we use what we sell and (where possible) we sell what we use. In this case, we had the opportunity to meet the principals of Kook's and we have been equally impressed by their product as well as the Kook's team. We are flattered to have the opportunity to sell their products. Their BOSS products are now on our website at http://www.cooltechllc.com

 

In for updates. Can you please explain what advantage there is by changing the H pipe for a Cat back system. I know nothing about exhaust systems.

 

hp gains with high flow cats



thanks rob

 

Awesome.

 

Rick, yeah all of the "terms" can be quite confusing.... I will attempt to clarify.

Let's look at all of the potential components from front to back.

1. Headers:

The Boss cars already utilize a "shorty" header. The tubes are short - likely the best design to get the CATs as close as possible to the heads where they can heat up very quickly and stay hot through the run cycle. This is one of the performance/emissions trade-offs must make. In this factory configuration, the OEM CATs are more vertical than horizontal as they are positioned just aft of the shorty headers.

One of the largest performance benefits that can be realized is to swap the OEM shorty headers for long tube headers. Our expectations and the quotes from the manufacturers are that we can expect to see 15-20+ HP from this change alone. However, the long tube headers will occupy the space previously utilized by the OEM CATs which would be discarded along with the shorty headers. As such, now it is important to decide if the mid-pipe you will use will re-incorporate CATs (street applications), or not ("off-road" applications).

2. Mid Pipe (Potentially our terminology)

The Mid-pipe is the next section of exhaust following the headers. In a Mustang, the mid-pipe is often comprised of either an H-Pipe design or an X-Pipe design. I suppose there are pluses and minuses for each. As OEM, the BOSS mid-pipe is unique in that it has a provision for a connection for the side pipes. The OEM BOSS side pipes may be connected and at this connection an exhaust disc may be used. The hole in the exhaust disc will determine the amount of exhaust gas that can escape from the side pipes. You may utilize a disc to completely block the exhaust (quietest) or you can completely eliminate the exhaust disc (loudest), or you can have a hole size anywhere inbetween. We like this - especially when you spend a lot of money on an exhaust, it is rare that you have the opportunity to have some customization to suit your preferences. So, just from Kook's, the following mid-pipes are available.

a. H-Pipe with BOSS side pipe provision
b. H-Pipe with NO BOSS side pipe provision
c. X-Pipe with NO BOSS side pipe provision

And, each of the above mid-pipes are available with or without CATs. (6 different mid-pipe choices.) We prever option a) with CATs.

Each of these mid-pipes is constructed from full 3" mandrel bent tubing and will have a measureable positive performance benefit. Where CATs are employed, they are hi performance, hi-flow CATs and should be better performing than OEM (from a performance perspective).

3. CAT-back (More accurately, mid-pipe-back.)

The Kook's CAT-back can be connected to any of the mid-pipes above or, it can be connected to the OEM set-up where everything forward of it is stock. The advantage again is a full 3" mandrel bent exhaust with NO additional silencers as well as mufflers that are ~ 1/2 the weight of the OEM mufflers (26 lbs each).

4. Axle Back

We don't mention axle back on our website but it is essentially a subset of the CAT-back system above. On both the OEM set-up and the CAT-back above there is a muffler connection just aft of the axle. It is possible to purchase an Axle-back solution where everything forward of it is OEM. This would be the case if you are just looking to ditch the weight of the OEM mufflers and achieve a different, higher sound. If there's interest, we can add the Axle-back system to our website.... but think of it as a subset of the CAT-back

I hope this helps to clarify. Questions (and corrections!) welcome!

 

I'm more curious about sound changes! I know when I put LTs and prochambers with some Flowmasters on my '06, it sounded nasty. In fact, my neighbor commented to me that my old Mustang sounded louder and meaner than my Boss. We can't be having that, can we????

 

How do the sidepipes sound with no cats and no silncer? Much louder/ better than stock?

 

Kendall, thank you, that was very helpful.

 

Do want. Staying tuned for typical stuff like performance, sound, pricing.

 

We are lucky to have someone like Kendall that knows his stuff. This guy and his son helped my wife and I break four speed records with our GT and a limited budget with the "right" improvements. Quality ideas and products.
Looking forward to having Cooltech work their magic with our, (correct that, my wife's) Boss!

 

In for updates. I'm really interested in the H pipe and being able to keep my side pipes. Video's please!

 

do the midpipes work with the stock header configuration or only with the longtube configurations?

 

Mid-pipe w/stock headers is what I'm interested in too.

 

I wanna hear that full Kooks exhaust.

http://www.cooltechllc.com/Boss/Boss_KO_System.shtml

 

Thanks for the feedback and, thanks, Apollo for the comments! We all know that there are two Bosses in your family.... and you are neither!! LOL

We can't wait to get the system installed either! We WILL create some videos/sound clips and, as I said previously, we're going to have some baseline dyno numbers done and then more with the full exhaust system. So, we owe the community: sound videos, weights, and HP/TQ benefits! We will deliver!! The exhaust is on its way to us but I plan to send the headers out for ceramic coating so that will set us back a couple of weeks. More soon!

 

I'm curious to hear how the side pipe sound is affected by shift in crossover tube location.

 

Interesting offering, Kendall. Right off the bat - I notice that Kooks' H-section utilizes a welded in section of tubing as well as a strip of stainless material between the two main exhaust pipes. While the welds look beautiful and the section appears to be very beefy, I'm wondering about any resonant side effects that'll arise due to the elimination of the factory style bellows.



With the quad pipes, you now have expansion/contraction in lateral planes whereas you didn't before (or at least not of the same magnitude). This leaves the factory rubber bushing to take up any and all changes in pipe length (as well as the welded in flex section on each quad). It is in fact, similar to how my own home brew "Quad H-section" ended up...



Some may notice certain harmonics from the system that they didn't have before because of it. I'd be interested to know why Kooks chose to go this route as opposed to using a factory "style" expansion pipe at the "H" juncture.

Secondly, the cats. I've seen a multitude of threads where the metallic substrate cats are failing and not long after installation either.





Those are Kooks cats (unsure as to whether Kooks manufactures them or farms them out). To be fair, my experience here resides more from the blown 5.4 community, and the additional horsepower undoubtedly compounds the issue as does how well the vehicle has been tuned and for what type of use. Is Kooks addressing this issue or considering using a larger, OE type ceramic substrate cat instead? Flow as well as a metallic unit may, they seem to be subject to catastrophic failure more so than lesser flowing units with a higher cell count. Can you elaborate here?

ON EDIT...PTROCKS hit it. I'd be interested in knowing why the crossover section wasn't designed to be parallel to the rest of the quad system as well...

Tob

 

Thanks for the work you guys are about to do Kendall! I am in for weight and power results...

 

Interested to see pricing on this as well. Does Kooks offer a system that bolts up to the factory mid-pipe location, or are all of their systems designed to remove the factory cats and move them downstream to the midpipe?

 

Kendall, thanks so much for the detailed explanation. Would love to live close to your shop (but my credit card is glad I don't). This sounds like something that needs to be done when said credit card has some spare space.

Question, can we do just number one since I am not worried about changing sound or weight further back like you said a "off-road" application?

If not change one and two only?

Would doing this, for example change just number one, require a tune with no cats? If not do you think there would be a warranty effect? Just asking opinion on that since you are not Ford.