96-98 GT Header Installation

u seem better off than i was already b/c u have access to good tools. i did the full exhaust swap in my backyard with only jackstands, basic handtools, and PBlaster penetrant. honestly its not that hard if you go about doing it correctly. from my experience ide say its impossible w/o jacking the motor up and dropping the k-member, as well as simply disconnecting the steering linkage (no need to remove). if you do these things then you shouldnt have any problems and it could turn out to be a one day job. i was fore-warned about having to drop the k-frame but tried to cheat around it (wasting a day), but i (we) still completed the whole job in one weekend. as for the rest of the exhaust it was easy as pie. installing the prochamber to the headers took roughly 15 mins, mufflers to prochamber 15 mins. ive heard that different headers may require different methods of installation, but im pretty sure that all longtubes (bbk, mac, kooks, hooker, etc) go on the same. good luck with youre swap youll be impressed in the end.

Yup. You're going to have to jack the motor. Mine were a real pain. My passenger side header still bangs just a little in my engine bay on start up. it is really tight on the starter too. It took roughly 10 hours to get the thing done right and that was with a hoist. Good luck. If you have freakishly small hands that will help. Think of borrowing a midget from the circus. I would do it again though. It was definitly worth it.

You definately don't have to jack the motor... Drop the K-Member.. that is the only thing that will get in your way.. If you do that, header removal / install will be cake...

The heads on your car are total crap. You probably want to do a PI headswap first (99+ heads), and just get a cat back and midpipe to save cash/effort. The non-pi heads will really hold back your car, and its hard to get decent power without changing them. They will give your car a dramatic hp improvement, and itll run with 99+ GTs (260hp) with no other changes. You wont get anywhere near the same from full exhaust.

Anyway, if I were you, I'd do a mid-pipe, then get some ported PI heads and cams. With a tune your car will make really nice power. Add a catback and itll sound nasty with the cams too!

Yeah headers are a PITA!! just finished mine today. (BBK Equal Tuned)

I didnt drop the kmember, just loosened steering shaft, took motor mounts and starter out and jacked up the engine then pry it over to the opposite side I was working on. Lift would help out A LOT. The tool I used the most was a shortie(4" or so long) 1/2" box/open wrench and a ratcheting wrench.

You might want to check the motor mounts, (have 80k) I had to wait 4 days from Ford to get mine and they only shipped one and had to wait another day for the other one. Mine were starting to wear metal on metal


As for combos, I like bassani the best (actual "sound" comes from mufflers) but I have BBK Equal Tuned Headers, BBK X pipe, Airflow I Mufflers, and etc.

I would do either shorties or long tubes, X, Flow 40s

The headers I put on didn't really make it lounder, its just really low and hollow now. sounds like a 5.0 until you hit high rpms

I like the idea of heads...you could p/p them (guy at speed shop said guys are running below 10s with these heads, just port and polished )
You can do cams also.

007 said:

The heads on your car are total crap. You probably want to do a PI headswap first (99+ heads), and just get a cat back and midpipe to save cash/effort. The non-pi heads will really hold back your car, and its hard to get decent power without changing them. They will give your car a dramatic hp improvement, and itll run with 99+ GTs (260hp) with no other changes. You wont get anywhere near the same from full exhaust.

Anyway, if I were you, I'd do a mid-pipe, then get some ported PI heads and cams. With a tune your car will make really nice power. Add a catback and itll sound nasty with the cams too!

Click to expand...

As far as hp/tq goes, there are many threads on NPI/PI, so I don't want to take this thread down that road since you are going for sound - but with my stock unported NPI heads (with PI cams), I last dyno'd with very similiar numbers as 007 with his PI heads: 229 rwhp and 276.7 rwtq.

Since most of the sound comes from mufflers, shorties do seem like a lot of trouble to go through for the incremental tones, but I can see it being worth it if you couple with a K-member change. Lighter weight and will have access to do the headers at the same time. Maybe look into some Spin Techs?

LI98GTStang said:

As far as hp/tq goes, there are many threads on NPI/PI, so I don't want to take this thread down that road since you are going for sound - but with my stock unported NPI heads (with PI cams), I last dyno'd with very similiar numbers as 007 with his PI heads: 229 rwhp and 276.7 rwtq.

Since most of the sound comes from mufflers, shorties do seem like a lot of trouble to go through for the incremental tones, but I can see it being worth it if you couple with a K-member change. Lighter weight and will have access to do the headers at the same time. Maybe look into some Spin Techs?

Click to expand...

Remember you have a 5 speed and I have an auto tho. My car with a 5 speed would dyno 245-250rwhp.
I dont really understand why you would do PI cam swap and not the heads. The non PIs are total crap. Everyone knows that. Why not buy a set of more aggresive cams anyway (e.g. VT stage 1)?

As I said before, ported PI heads, and some nice cams is the way to go IMO.

007 said:

Remember you have a 5 speed and I have an auto tho. My car with a 5 speed would dyno 245-250rwhp.
I dont really understand why you would do PI cam swap and not the heads. The non PIs are total crap. Everyone knows that. Why not buy a set of more aggresive cams anyway (e.g. VT stage 1)?

As I said before, ported PI heads, and some nice cams is the way to go IMO.

Click to expand...

The reason I went with the PI cams was that they were documented as having gains, were cost effective compared to more agressive cams and also allowed me to stay with the stock valve springs (another additional cost of agressive cams). I could also handle the job of changing the cams more easily compared to PI heads or 3rd party cams and springs.
I'll point you guys checking this thread out to here as this NPI/PI has been argued and documented before....... And point taken that I do have a 5sp, but compared to your setup, my car doesn't have a chip or T/A so I am at stock timing leaving some hp/tq behind.

http://forums.modulardepot.com/showthread.php?threadid=2634