So I was looking at doing an online subscription to Mustang monthly. And I saw this article
http://www.mustangandfords.com/how-to/engine/1406-long-tube-vs-shorty-headers-pipe-dreams/ While I was checking out the parent site. Is it me or does it seem a bit skewed? I am not saying that the power gains are bad, but I think swapping out to a completely different style exhaust and then saying the long tubes were the reason for them is misleading. Or am I mistaken and an X or H pipe and mufflers will have no affect the overall power output?
The reason it caught my eye is I am still trying to decide on the ceramic coated shorties I have or the long tubes I have that have had a tube modified to fit around the clutch cable on my T5.
I will make this as short as possible. This is 20 years of tuning experience, but take it for what it’s worth:
Shorties will not gain any power over a
So I was looking at doing an online subscription to Mustang monthly. And I saw this article
http://www.mustangandfords.com/how-to/engine/1406-long-tube-vs-shorty-headers-pipe-dreams/ While I was checking out the parent site. Is it me or does it seem a bit skewed? I am not saying that the power gains are bad, but I think swapping out to a completely different style exhaust and then saying the long tubes were the reason for them is misleading. Or am I mistaken and an X or H pipe and mufflers will have no affect the overall power output?
The reason it caught my eye is I am still trying to decide on the ceramic coated shorties I have or the long tubes I have that have had a tube modified to fit around the clutch cable on my T5.
I’ll make it as short as possible. This is based on hundreds of hours of tuning exhaust systems over thousands of vehicles with tens of thousands of exhaust systems built over the last 20 years. Some of my clients are even international vehicle manufacturers. (Can’t name names due to NDA’s) But take it for what it’s worth. Maybe somebody else with a computer can help better
These general comments are not my theory, they are what I know based on being in the 400-500hp range range.
Shorties don’t gain enough over stock manifolds to show a difference on a Dyno, but they sure do on the street during daily driving. The low end torque loss is very noticeable and ruins the way that the car drives. If shorties are your only option, stick to stock manifolds.
Long tubes gain power across all rpm ranges. 1 5/8, 1 3/4 both have the same power gains, but 1 5/8 has better low end.
X pipe, h pipe, or no crossover have zero effect on power on the Dyno. You don’t see a difference between the 3 in back to back testing on several v8 engines and several manufacturers. Both efi and carb. But on the street, X pipe has more useable low end torque. With H pipe being a close second. No crossover is noticeably less low end than either h or x.
In a nut shell, long tubes are worth whatever it takes to put them in. Either 1 5/8 or 1 3/4 are fine.
Run an x pipe. If closer to 500hp run 3”. If closer to 300hp run 2.5”. This last paragraph assumes you’re running long tubes.