BA XR8 exhaust on NF Fairlane??

[balistc]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post here, but I'm a regular on quite a few other car forums (specifically Subaru based ones, because I also own a WRX).

My grandfather gave me his '96 NF Fairlane Ghia 5.0 a few years ago, because he replaced it with a BA Fairmont Ghia.

Great condition, low km, etc...done a few repairs, etc, over the past few years to get it as new again, and as of today I've replaced a dead AFM and 2 new oxy sensors are going in tomorrow!

I also know the cats are stuffed because it seems extremely restricted at the top end of the rev range, and has a terrible "egg smell" after a hard thrash, so the exhaust will have to be tickled also.

What I was thinking, was to fit an exhaust off another Ford model, say a BA XR8, or use bits and pieces such as the BA XR8 cats, mufflers, resonators, but with custom pipes.

The way I see it, if this exhaust can help make 260kw or more on a 5.4 litre quad cam V8, it'll help my lowly 165kw 5.0 litre windsor breathe a lot better whilst retaining some sort of noise suppression! I got the idea from an autospeed.com article I read on budget exhaust systems using factory components off other vehicles.

Seeing some pictures of both systems, they look "roughly" similar in dimension.

Does anyone know, if a BA XR8 exhaust will even come close to fitting, or will I have to run the custom pipes with the factory XR8 mufflers and cats? Maybe by relocating the hangers, it'll have some chance of fitting?

Is this a good idea, or a stupid one?

Cheers for ya help!