Ford exhaust problem. Loud noise now?

Okay I was driving and all of a sudden my left exhaust pipe started sounding super loud! I hav duel exhaust and it had a small leak in it before and now it's almost to bad to drive. It's before the cat and is has a heat shield over it so I can't see exactly what it is. A leak or if the pipes separated under the shield. I'm not sure if there's a Connection of the pipes that they could hav separated or I'd there's a hole now or what. What do you think it is and how can I fix it

Mr. Campbell, is not the last sentence a question? Where is the required question mark? Why is there no punctuation mark at all? All sentences must end with a correct punctuation mark. Please do so. This is a major grammatical mistake. The vehicle. You ignored a problem that can be deadly. Leaking exhaust systems do not take the super poisonous exhaust gases away from the driver and passengers. Carbon monoxide is odorless and deadly. Since you are not a mechanic, what is the point of asking "how" as to car issues. Go and see a mechanic for proper repairs. The last question is this. Why is a sixteen year old boy doing driving a truck besides making driving the most expensive act of each day?

No matter what the problem is, you will have to remove that heat shield to fix it anyway, so get under there & remove that. Then you will be able to tell what is going on a whole lot better. A bad flange gasket is a possibility, but it is also very possible that the small hole simply blew out. If you are in a northern climate where rust is a problem, your pipe may have rusted through.

Ford uses 'gaskets' in the two bolt & three bolt exhaust flanges. Could have just blown one out…

You may have broken the studs that attach the headpipe to the manifold.

If it hasn't blown a bigger hole in it, the baffles in the muffler may have let go. It's happened to me.