Ok, on the ever growing quest to make my car right, I've found myself looking at my exhaust more and more. Current set up = rusty old long tubes, some kinda shop built H pipe with cut outs into flow masters. I can't find any reason to keep the long tube set up except for not wanting to mess with removing them. It leaks, it scrapes on the ground, its rusty. Is there some reason to keep long tubes on a mostly stock street driven fox?
Long Tubes Vs Shorties.. What's Practical.
- Thread starter billison
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mikestang63
SN Certified Technician
I've never missed not using LT headers on several street cars, all making over 400rwhp. It;s not worth the PITA install, and working around them to me.
- Jul 7, 2005
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I agree...
If you are looking to try and get every once of HP out of the engine then yes, but most of us are not chasing 10-15HP. Most of us are looking for ways to gain 50-100+HP
rattlecan96gt
Active Member
could also think about if you want to boost it in the future and what kind, if turbo your gonna have to get rid of it anyways then may as well get shorties then atleast it would be easier to remove for the turbo manifold just a thought
X3. If you're looking for every last hp/tq, then the LT's are worth it. If not...shortys work fine.
- Dec 19, 2010
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I've had both on numerous cars. I can say longtubes on a lowered Mustang suck. I hit the little filler cap bumps in every gas station I ever pulled into it seems in the lowered car I had. On my old fastback they were great, until it came time to change a starter and It was a multi hour cuss fest. Long tubes do eek out more hp, and if you are trying to make your car as fast as possible, they are the way to go if you aren't using turbos. That said, my two fastest cars I've owned were a 351w fox with shorties, and a turbo 5.0, so...
I have long tubes on a 'bolt on' stock height car, I lean a little toward the old school side, no real headaches, but shorties are less money and seem to be easier to deal with when issues like trans or starter problems arise, but really how often is that?
If it's lowered I'd say shorties, if not the little extra grunt you get from LTs are worth it.
6 of one, half dozen of the other minus a couple possible inconveniences later.
If it's lowered I'd say shorties, if not the little extra grunt you get from LTs are worth it.
6 of one, half dozen of the other minus a couple possible inconveniences later.
I've made my choice. Long tubes gotta go. I'm lowered and they scrape, plus they are rusty and I have no plans to do the job twice. Reached out to my local mustang group and found a guy with headers and x pipe with cats ( non stock) that we are gonna swap. So minus the effort of the swap and maybe adding flow tubes I won't have any cost. Plus the cats will deal with the exhaust smell I've been fighting.
Shorties here, no complaint.
Heck, if you're putting cats back on, I doubt there would be any difference short vs long tubes performance wise. The cats will be the bottle neck regardless of the header choice.
Heck, if you're putting cats back on, I doubt there would be any difference short vs long tubes performance wise. The cats will be the bottle neck regardless of the header choice.
rattlecan96gt
Active Member
I have long tubes and no problems with scraping. I don't pull my engine out every other month so where's the headache?
Nice picture
I have long tubes and no problems with scraping. I don't pull my engine out every other month so where's the headache?
Same for me, and mine is as low or lower and never really had a problem scraping. The only big issue was the original install as I was trying to do it without lifting the engine for the passenger side. The drivers side went right in, but the passenger was a few hours of cussing till I loosened up the motor mounts and did it the easy way. Once they are on it's all good, and if you are doing other work that requires removing the exhaust it's easier to unbolt the LT H-Pipe from the header than a pair of bolts way up behind the bell-housing.
For me it's not the HP I was after but I wanted the additional TQ provided by them, it's hard to get that any other way with shorties.
I've always heard about the tone and sound difference using LT's vs Shorties. I've had a 302 with mods @ 300 HP since 2005 and have shorties. I am going to build a 351 (400) and wanted to run LTs and will use the fox setup and run a tremec tranny from Hanlon motorsports. Talking to the guy there he told me what all I will need to use to go with the fox setup since my car is a 95 and I've done my homework and as far as fitment, it's the way to go vs using a T5 much less the torque and power that the even the astro T5 may not be able to take. So I am/was willing to go that route and get the LT's ( BBK ceramic 1 3/4's).
Car won't be a drag or racer but a nice weekend driving streetcar and something's telling me to just go ahead and do the LTs.
and what about the tone difference if one wanted a different overall sound/tone and was willing to deal with the little headaches lol?
my 95 is lowered and how often will you have to change the starter lol. I've had my , did the engine swap from v6 to v8 in 2002 and might have changed the starter once lol
exactly lol. My car will be a weekend driver and like i said earlier, since 2002 with swapping to the v8, I've maybe put on one starter
I have long tubes and no problems with scraping. I don't pull my engine out every other month so where's the headache?
yes I will definitely go ahead as planned with my build.
sound difference as well too right?
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