Opinions On 'Top End Bolt Ons'

[Foxfan88]

... Says the guy with aluminum heads and an aftermarket cam.

hehe, sometimes i wish i would have kept the stock cam when i had my old thumper headed combo with a b-cam, i think i stock cam would have worked really well with the thumper heads.

 

[Makdaddymac]

hey guys bringing this back to the first page.........

anyways how restrictive are the stock headers vs, some mac or bbk. cause im looking at pics and i cant really see the benefit to some aftermarket shorties.....

 

[cenok is family]

the primaries on aftermarket headers are larger than the stock headers. the stockers are smaller than 1.5" and aftermarkets are typically 1 5/8's and up. that and other tweaks in design help them flow way better than the stockers.

 

[Makdaddymac]

ok well itwould help but just off the top of your heads, and butt dyno's

how much hp gain from a header swap on a stock motor, and on a modded motor.
just seeing if the gain from headers justify cost considering im might order some rims soon and i figure,although its an easy mod is it worth my time etc....
im emailing a local guy about some headers for 100.00 just verifying the brand.

 

[cenok is family]

well the thing about changing them on a stock motor is the motor is still going to be choked out because of the heads and intake. so on a stock motor, not really very much. maybe 10 to the wheels. the ports on the gt40 heads are larger and would definitely justify the purchase of an aftermarket set, and you'd yield more power from the swap than a stock motor would. for $100 for sure do it! the same goes for pretty much all aftermarket performance parts. you can throw a set of afr heads on a completely stock motor and get maybe 30-40rwhp (again, keeping everything else stock). mm&ff did a bolt on vs. NOS article a few issues back where they gained 125rwhp at 6500rpm on a 331 by switching from stock e7's to afr 185's. it's all about putting together a good combo of parts that work well together, not just throwing on the "biggest and best".

sorry, i noticed i've been ranting a lot lately. lol

 

[5.0Torx]

cenok i would hardly call that ranting. youre good, man

Anyways, to the OP, my small contribution to this thread is pretty much a restatement of what cenok said. The gains from headers will be compounded by other things in the airflow package. On a stock engine, where pretty much everything from the air silencer to the tailpipes is good for 230 hp and roughly 150 cfm intake flow/100 cfm exhaust flow per cylinder, doing headers (with stock H and catback) will be next to nothing. If youre an air molecule flying through your engine, youll be inside the new headers for a fraction of a second. if you do the rest of the exhaust system, though, youll feel it. I did full exhaust on mine (BBK unequal shorties to 2.5" dual all the way back) and dyno'd 207 @ 4700 and 274 @ 3500ish. My butt dyno could feel more power from 2500rpm and up, and i felt that my shift point no longer had to be 5k anymore, i can stretch it out to 5500. I never dyno'd it stock but it was not as powerful as it is now.

By the same token, if you keep stock exhaust on a twin turbo 347 stroker, itll pull like crazy until about 3k and then poop all over the place.

So there you have it. Make sure everything in your airflow package is sized similarly. For your specific case, which by the way i am really enjoying reading because i plan on doing nearly the exact same thing (have an explorer engine in my garage, just waiting for mustang downtime), i would definitely recommend doing full exhaust. If i can feel the difference on 100k mile E7s, youll deifnitely be holding yourself back with stock exhaust components on fresh GT40s. 2.5" dual is the way to go. and my BBK headers rule.

 

[Makdaddymac]

i agree but i do have an o/r x pipe and pypes catback....so im running a 75% exhaust.

 

[ryan218]

yeah and I remember that they looked like crap and you had to pay a shop to straighten them out because they would not stop leaking.

I paid 350 for a set of ceramic coated bbk lt's. still in box and never been used.
I also have a set of Summit brand Lt's that I paid 75 for, but they have been used. I will probably sell them or save them for a future project.

pay a shop to have them stratend out? no. i put them on. yes it was a little bit of a pita to get on because of not being a single flange. but i paid 40 bucks for my BBK shortys for my 89 with a solid flange and then went on in under an hour. love em.

idk if any of you have the 5.0 ford dyno test but in there the test tonssssss of different combos. if anyone is looking for a certain combo ill gladly look through the book and see if its in there.

 

[ryan218]

man. really stop worying about what one thing will do for you hp wise. its your combo that is going to make or break you. a good basic combo and you will see plenty of power. a full exhaust WILL make a noticeable different imo.

 

[5.0Torx]

i agree but i do have an o/r x pipe and pypes catback....so im running a 75% exhaust.

then headers will definitely help. no question.

 

[ryan218]

i agree but i do have an o/r x pipe and pypes catback....so im running a 75% exhaust.

I DEMAND A DAMN EXHASUT VIDEO!!!!!!!! IVE BEEN ASKING FOR ALMOST A YEAR FOR THE PYPES CATBACK!!!!!!!! IM THINKING OF ORDERING ONE AFTER I GET THE MOTOR BUILT YES CAPS. NOW PLEASE. MAKE ME A VIDEO!!!!

 

[25thmustang]

Sister has pypes on her GT with cats...

Car is really quiet, probably more so than Mac and Flowmaster.

 

[stykthyn]

search on youtube. there are a bunch of pypes vids. I am not impressed with the sound, but you cant beat their prices.

 

[ryan218]

search on youtube. there are a bunch of pypes vids. I am not impressed with the sound, but you cant beat their prices.

i want something mellow at idel but decently deep rumble. im thinking magnaflow is my best bet for that? pypes i hear is raspy? i dont like raspy. but i want to hear what it would sound like with catless x and shortys.

i want it to scream when im on it. i think my goal with my car is now i want to autocross it im a corner craver but i love the strip. i wanna do both. there are a few convert stangs that run in the scca region of ohio and a buddy of mine has got me hooked on it.

 

[25thmustang]

Have you done any type of racing yet? An auto vert wont make the best autocross car, but if your just doing it for fun and thats all you have, then do it up!

 

[stykthyn]

if you want to auto-x then subframes, STB, and a cage are a must to keep the chassis from twisting through the corners.

 

[Boostedpimp]

Just take the plung of a $100 and invest the 20 minutes of install time on the headers.. theyll only help you get more power from your other mods its not like you run the risk of losing hp or not getting anything for your few dollars... plus theyll add to the sound of the car

about the pypes catback...

I have the pypes catback with a pypes catless x pipe, stainless flowmaster tips all 2.5" with a set of bbk unequal length shorties and its quiet... allot quieter then my previous lx with flowmaster 40s with off road h pipe and mac shorties. I also have a few friends with mac and flowmasters dumped on there foxes and mine is still allot quieter.

 

[strtrcr50]

My pypes catback with catted x pipe isn't that loud either. At full throttle it is tho.

 

[25thmustang]

Yeah the pypes actually disappointed me. I heard them on a 331 car and they screamed. I got them for my sisters car and they are very quiet. Outside the car they make some noise, but nothing special to me. They also have a different tone vs a Mac or Flowmaster.

 

[ryan218]

if you want to auto-x then subframes, STB, and a cage are a must to keep the chassis from twisting through the corners.

already have 2 of the 3