Installation Time
(approx) 3 Hours
Difficulty Level:
Light to Moderate mechanical skill required.
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Justin: The Proven Ground Cat-back that we have here today will be one of your most affordable full stainless options on the site, available for the 2015 through 2020 3.5-liter EcoBoost truck, while also adding some flexibility with how you want the system to look. Now, interested EcoBoost owners can look forward to that 409-grade stainless steel throughout, including the chambered muffler design, which will allow for an aggressive, but yet modest tone overall. Price point's gonna live in that mid to high $500 range. And the install, at least according to the site, gonna get a pretty solid two outta three wrenches on the difficulty meter and take roughly three hours or so to complete from start to finish.But since this is an exhaust video after all, let's just jump right into the sound you can expect here with this system in place. And as I just described, yes, it is noticeable, but it's certainly not ridiculous, and that is probably one of the things I enjoy most about this system overall besides its very affordable price point. Listen, we all know that EcoBoost isn't Ford's best-sounding engine ever built, but the reality is with the right system, the right amount of volume, it can sound pretty good without being obnoxious, and I think the Proven Ground Cat-back accomplishes just that. So, breaking up my patented wake-the-neighbor scale, I do have the Proven Ground coming in, middle of the road, three outta five on my one to five or one to wake-the-neighbor scale. Now, inside the truck, certainly gonna hear it a little bit, but it's not excessive or certainly not what I would refer to as annoying drone at highway speeds.Now, with the sound pretty much covered, let's move into quality and construction, and as I mentioned at the very start of this video, guys, this is gonna be one of your most affordable full stainless systems available for the 2015 through 2020 EcoBoost platform. Now, you can expect the 409-grade stainless to be exact throughout, which is certainly your mid-level material behind 304 grade on the top end and the Illumina Steel kinda rounding out the entry-level price point. Now, the 409, which this system is made of, is a very solid material, certainly gonna offer that corrosion resistance necessary even for fairly snowy or salty areas.Now, as far as your specifics are concerned, well, you are looking at a combination of both 2-1/2-inch and 3-inch mandrel bent tubing throughout, which does lead into and out of that hollow-chambered muffler before exiting out the twin 3-1/2-inch polished tips which actually have been made from that top of the line 304 grade stainless we just talked about. But maybe one of my favorite parts, and I know I've kind of said this a lot about this system, we've talked about the good volume and obviously the sound, and that low price point, is the fact that the Proven Ground Cat-back is going to deliver both options for a dual side exit or dual rear exit configuration, which is killer, and that's something that you don't always see with aftermarket exhaust companies, especially at this low price point.The best part is, guys, changing the layout really is easy and can be done in a matter of minutes using a basic socket set. Last but not least, Proven Ground does toss in all of your necessary clamps and hardware needed to get everything bolted up. And this is a perfect time to segue into the installation process, and site's again gonna call this pretty solid two outta three wrenches on the difficulty meter, maybe a few hours of your time to complete from start to finish. And to give you a better idea of just what to expect in the driveway or garage, feel free to check out our detailed walkthrough and tool breakdown now.Man 1: Tools you will need for this install include an impact, swivel adapter, 13-millimeter, 14-millimeter, 15-millimeter, 16-millimeter, and 17-millimeter sockets, 16-millimeter wrench, hanger removal tool, lubricant, a pry bar, and a pole jack or jack stands. What's up, guys? Today, we're gonna be showing you how to install a new exhaust on our F-150, but before we get started, we're gonna send you over to a short video on how to uninstall your factory system, and we'll see when you get back.Man 2: So, first things first, we gotta get rid of our factory cat-back, and we're gonna start by lubricating all of the hangers, and then there's two 13-millimeter bolts on this flange here that we're going to undo as well. That'll allow us to push the whole exhaust back and drop it in one big piece. If you are working on the grind, you might have to loosen that clamp right there or bring out the saw to cut this into a couple pieces, but, again, since we're on the lift, we're gonna take it out in one big piece.Man 1: What's up, guys? Welcome back. Now that we've shown you how to uninstall your factory system, we're gonna go ahead and install our new system. So let's get going. The first step is gonna be to install our mid-pipe, and we'll show you how to do that now. Okay, so now we can go ahead and slide our mid-pipe over our crossmember and up to our flange. And when you're doing this, it's always a good idea to have a pole jack or jack stand, something to kinda hold it in place so you can go ahead and get everything lined up. So, once you have your flange lined up, you can go ahead and install your two supplied 14-millimeter bolts, two flat washers, a lock washer, and your 16-millimeter nuts. All right, and we're gonna leave those loose for now so we can allow for adjustment when we get farther down our system.Next, we can go ahead and install our hanger clamp for our passenger side frame rail here in the middle. And for that, we're just gonna go ahead and slide that on back past the hanger, line it up at the isolator and go ahead and slide it right back through. And again, we're gonna leave that loose for now. And it's always a good idea to lubricate your isolators just to allow your hangers to pass through a little bit more freely. And now we can move on to our next step.So, next, we can go ahead and install our muffler, and ours is labeled with an inlet side since this is a single-handled dual-out system. So, I just wanna make sure you put your single inlet onto your mid-pipe. And before we do that, we want to go ahead and slide our clamp onto our mid-pipe just so we don't forget to install that. And go ahead, slide that into place. Then you can go ahead and move your pole jack or jack stands, whatever you have helping you out, under your muffler to hold that into place.Next, we can install our driver's side over-axle portion of our exhaust. Again, we want to make sure we slide our clamp onto our muffler so it's there before we slide our pipe on. Once you put your clamp on, you can go ahead and slide your over-axle portion back, fish it through, line it up with your hanger and your muffler. Once you have your isolator lined up with your hanger and your pipe going into your muffler, you can go ahead and push that into place. And sometimes, it may be stubborn, so if you need to grab a pry bar for leverage, you can go ahead and use that now. Then go ahead and persuade it.So once you have your driver's side axle back into place, you can go ahead and snug down your clamp just to go ahead and hold it so it doesn't move around while we do the passenger side. And to do that, we're gonna be using our 17-millimeter socket on our impact. So now we can install our passenger side over axle. And again, we've slipped our clamp over our muffler, and we can go ahead and route our over axle up. And this one is actually going to go on your closer isolator, and go ahead and line that up with your muffler and slide that into place.So now we can go ahead and install our supplied passenger side hanger bracket, and to do that, we're gonna come right under our shock mount. Back into the right a little bit, you'll see this lower hole, and we're gonna go ahead and slide that. And to do this, we're gonna go ahead and use our longer 16-millimeter bolt, our flat washer on our bolt side, our square spacer for our backside. Now that we have our passenger side frame hanger on with our M10 by 100-millimeter bolt and our back square spacer on, we can go ahead and tighten that down using our 16-millimeter socket impact and 16-millimeter wrench. So, once you have your hanger bracket tightened down, you can go ahead and slide your isolator onto your bracket.So now we can go ahead and install our passenger-side tail section that goes around our spare tire. Now we can go ahead and slide it up into place. Remember to slide your clamp on first, and then go ahead and get that into your isolator. And then you can go ahead and snug down your clamp to hold that into place. Now, to tighten down our clamp, again, we're gonna be using our 17-millimeter socket on our impact.So, next, we can go ahead and install our side exit adapters, and to do that, again, we're gonna slide our clamp over our tubing. Go ahead and slide your bend on and get your clamp over it and kinda eyeball it up. And we're just gonna snug this clamp down, we're not gonna tighten it down fully. So we can line each of these up with our tips, and we can go ahead and repeat that process for the passenger side. And to snug down our clamps, we're gonna be using our 17-millimeter socket on our impact and keeping an eye on the angle of our side exit tubes. And you still want some motion so you can line up your tips, and then we'll do the same thing on the other side.So now we can go ahead and install our tips to our adapters, and for that, you simply slide it on, get your angle how you like it, top of your slash cut facing upwards, and we can go ahead and tighten down our clamp using our 17-millimeter socket on our impact. So now that we have our tip on and the angle of our slash cut set, we can go ahead and tighten down our adapter to hold that into place, again, using our 17-millimeter socket on our impact. And then we can go ahead and repeat this process on the other side.So now that we have our tail section set, we can go ahead and start working our way back up the system, tightening everything down, and we're gonna come back here. We already tightened down our passenger side over axle, so we're gonna go ahead and tighten down our outlets for our mufflers, and to do that, again, we're gonna need our 17-millimeter socket on our impact and go ahead and give this driver's side a final snug, and then go ahead and give the passenger side the same thing.Next, we can go ahead and tighten down our inlay clamp on our muffler, and again, we're gonna use our 17-millimeter socket on our impact. Next, we can go ahead and tighten down our hanger clamp, again, using our 17-millimeter socket and an impact. Next, we can go ahead and tighten down our flange using our 14-millimeter socket, a swivel adapter, and a 16-millimeter wrench for your nut. And you wanna work back and forth on this to tighten it down equally.Alrighty, guys, that about wraps up our review and install of our Proven Ground Dual Exhaust System with Polished Tips and a Side or Rear Exit option for your '15 to '20 3.5-liter EcoBoost F-150, excluding Raptors and your '19 and '20 limiteds. Thank you for watching, and as always, for everything F-150, keep it right here at americantrucks.com.
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Features, Description, Reviews, Q&A, Specs & Installation
Brand | Proven Ground |
Exhaust System Type | Cat-Back System |
Exhaust Tip Finish | Chrome, Polished |
Exhaust Tubing Diameter | 2.50 Inch |
Exhaust Material | Stainless Steel |
Exhaust Tip Outlet Style | Dual |
Exhaust Exit Location | Both Sides or Rear - After Tire |
Exhaust Loudness | Loud |
Fitment:
DetailsProven Ground T556094
CA Residents: WARNING: Cancer and Reproductive Harm - www.P65Warnings.ca.gov
Installation Info
Installation Time
(approx) 3 Hours
Difficulty Level:
Light to Moderate mechanical skill required.
What's in the Box
10 More Questions
Not Compatible on Regular Cab Models with a 6-1/2-Foot Bed