My next 2 mods on my list are headers and the boss mani.....question is I was going to go with a pair of shorties due too cost and being able to keep my o/r h. So are they worth is and which coating is the best/and best price. Thanks guys :rockon:
Shorty Headers worth it?
- Thread starter jas11151990
- Start date
Ask WBT
Since our cars come with tubular headers, I wouldn't waste my time/money for anything less than long tubes.
subbed for wbts answer
Sorry for the delay. Been busy this evening with school starting next week for kids here.
For some background and history/results, I documented everything on modularfords.com:
BBK mid-length headers
BBK Shorties
Warning: you will see a lot of controversy and opinion in those threads with some heated discussions.
Anywho, let me know if you have any additional questions. I certainly think they were worth the $270 spent and I have no plans to ever go with long tubes. If you decide to go turbo down the road then you can use the shorties whereas the LT's are out of the question. Hope that helps! :beer:
For some background and history/results, I documented everything on modularfords.com:
BBK mid-length headers
BBK Shorties
Warning: you will see a lot of controversy and opinion in those threads with some heated discussions.
Anywho, let me know if you have any additional questions. I certainly think they were worth the $270 spent and I have no plans to ever go with long tubes. If you decide to go turbo down the road then you can use the shorties whereas the LT's are out of the question. Hope that helps! :beer:
So for cliff notes, the shorties picked up how much over stock? How many hours do you think the install would be for someone that's mechanically inclined, has done headers before and has a drive on lift?
ok so is there a specific shorty that is best for the o/r H and where is a good place to get them. All in all it seems they are a cost effective way to gain hp without a grand for longtubes.
Cliffnotes:
24WHP increase over the stock shorty headers. TQ Would have been same or higher but had torque management enabled in the tune so that did not have an accurate representation. Dyno comparison:
Install is just as tedious as LT's. I took my time, smoothed the welds inside each primary and it took me 2 days.
BBK Shorties is all I have experience with. You can get them from most everywhere. I got mine from SummitRacing. :beer:
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what coating do you have on yours
Chrome plated. Nothing fancy. They have blued but this engine is so wide you really can't see them unless you stick your head in the engine bay.
ok i think im going to go the route....chrome ones from AM with the discount are only 320 or so
those threads were a pretty interesting read. I agree if i dont have to spend that much money on headers and can get the same gains for about 1k less it would be stupid not to go shorties. out of curiosity i wonder how close to the full Stainless works setup would the shorties o/r X and the SW retro chambered cat back would sound?
probably pretty close, but then again these cars sound so different with any combo lol
Personally I think it would sound bad ass. Before I installed my Magnaflow cat-back, I had the stock over the axles with Magnaflow 15594 muffler deletes. It was 'effing loud but it had a very exotic sound in the upper rpm range. Much different than with the stock headers. This was using an O/R x pipe.
WBT how was butt-o-meter after installed?
Those things are always hard to tell however I did notice a nice improvement in the upper RPM range. The car screamed.
I had the bassani mid length headers on my 97 GT and really liked them and was also considering shorties for my 2012.
Is the same caveat with the 4.6's true in that if you put LT's on the 5.0, you have to pull them off to get the transmission out?
If so, there's absolutely zero chance of me wanting LT's should my transmission develop any issues that would require the dealership to pull the transmission. I can only imagine the headache that could potentially lead to.
Also, am I also understanding that with shorties, you can leave the ECU stock?
I guess I'm just curious if the shorties are worth more power with an aftermarket tune?
Like for example you take the same car/dyno/etc (all things being equal) and you dyno the car with the stock headers/exhaust and an aftermarket tune and then put the shorties on but leave the rest of the exhaust stock, would there be any additional power gains that the shorties yield that the tune can take advantage of?
In other words, are there any specific tuning parameters that guys like bama, amazon, lethal, etc take into consideration that are specifically tweaked to get extra power from the shorties? Or is it pretty much that they would simply change the tune just to accommodate an off road pipe if you had that?
The reason I'm wondering all of this is because in that article of the bbk LT and shorty install, they mentioned the fact that there was a plateau in the midrange where they were suspecting the factory ECU tune was trying to step in and regulate and could be robbing power. Has this been proven to be the case and tuning companies have addressed that so that there are more linear gains or is that's just how it is no matter what and simply a result of the design of the shorty?
Is the same caveat with the 4.6's true in that if you put LT's on the 5.0, you have to pull them off to get the transmission out?
If so, there's absolutely zero chance of me wanting LT's should my transmission develop any issues that would require the dealership to pull the transmission. I can only imagine the headache that could potentially lead to.
Also, am I also understanding that with shorties, you can leave the ECU stock?
I guess I'm just curious if the shorties are worth more power with an aftermarket tune?
Like for example you take the same car/dyno/etc (all things being equal) and you dyno the car with the stock headers/exhaust and an aftermarket tune and then put the shorties on but leave the rest of the exhaust stock, would there be any additional power gains that the shorties yield that the tune can take advantage of?
In other words, are there any specific tuning parameters that guys like bama, amazon, lethal, etc take into consideration that are specifically tweaked to get extra power from the shorties? Or is it pretty much that they would simply change the tune just to accommodate an off road pipe if you had that?
The reason I'm wondering all of this is because in that article of the bbk LT and shorty install, they mentioned the fact that there was a plateau in the midrange where they were suspecting the factory ECU tune was trying to step in and regulate and could be robbing power. Has this been proven to be the case and tuning companies have addressed that so that there are more linear gains or is that's just how it is no matter what and simply a result of the design of the shorty?
Now was the 24 whp gain with or without the addition of an aftermarket mid pipe. If so, after I do the shifter I am definitely doing a set of shorties and the off road h.
Both runs were with an O/R X pipe. The gains seen were all the work of the shorties.
Everything I have read/seen is that you do not have to pull the LT's to get the transmission out.
I can't really comment about the stock tune other than it does have torque management enabled which will kill gains particularly in the middle. If you look at the blue line in the graph, you see that the car starts to show TQ gains over the stock headers around 4,100 and then TQ management kicks in and takes over until around 5,600. I.E. it closes the throttle blade to control the TQ.
I would recommend a tune either way to get the most gains. We didn't need to make any specific A/F changes just with swapping the shorties. The tune already had the rear O2 sensors turned off for the O/R X pipe and that was all that was needed. Make sure that TQ management is disabled in the tune and you should be good to go.
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