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Question about hearders

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lav_2002GT
  • Start date Start date Apr 30, 2005
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Lav_2002GT

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Apr 21, 2005
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Apr 30, 2005
#1
  • Apr 30, 2005
  • #1
I dont see much mention of people putting headers on. Is this a worth while mod? If so what headers would yall recommend for a 02 GT? On a modest budget if possible. I have heard a couple of people dogging BBK. Do they make good products? All help appreciated.
 

White Stang

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Feb 11, 2004
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Ft Lauderdale
Apr 30, 2005
#2
  • Apr 30, 2005
  • #2
Headers are a good mod but take alot of time to install. The easyiest way to install them is to drop the K member. I use SLP LT
 

stangman

15 Year Member
Jul 10, 2003
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#3
  • Apr 30, 2005
  • #3
if you are working on a budget macs are good. alot of people may argue with me on that, but i've had 3 set's of mac lt's & never had a problem from them & btw - don't waste your time with shorties, if you're going to do the install you may as well see the better gains with the lts
 
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mto gt2000

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Apr 8, 2005
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#4
  • Apr 30, 2005
  • #4
With a budget bbk or mac...either is good quality, but of course there are better ones. Install took me 6 days...not working everyday, put in two 4 hour days. That was a first time install also, Im sure it would take a lot less the nex ttime around.
 
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tomabram

Banned
Apr 1, 2005
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Apr 30, 2005
#5
  • Apr 30, 2005
  • #5
stangman said:
if you are working on a budget macs are good. alot of people may argue with me on that, but i've had 3 set's of mac lt's & never had a problem from them & btw - don't waste your time with shorties, if you're going to do the install you may as well see the better gains with the lts
Click to expand...

Why not get shorties? Yes the longtubes are alittle bit better but really not much. If your car is lowered then DO NOT GET THE LONGTUBES. They stick down a great deal. You should get equal length shorties. I have BBK longtubes but they sit close to the ground. I dont think there really is much of a difference in the brands.
 

vristang

15 Year Member
Mar 31, 2005
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Seattle
Apr 30, 2005
#6
  • Apr 30, 2005
  • #6
I have MAC shorties and the prochamber still hits the speed bumps. If you are lowered expect it. My opinion on short or long is that it depends on your objectives. After putting on my shorties no trans. shop in the area would work on my car. They don't want to hassle with it. If you will not be doing all of the work on your car this could be an issue. Will you be doing more mods? How crazy do you plan on getting? The longer tubes will yield better performance, but with all the sacrifices mentioned earlier.

The difference between manufacturers is mostly with production tolerances and material quality. MACs are made from a less corrosion resistant steel than Borlas.
I have had two (302 and 351w) sets of MACs and have had no complaints. For the price I think they are the best show in town.
 
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Darkhorse845

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Nov 17, 2004
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Apr 30, 2005
#7
  • Apr 30, 2005
  • #7
The BBK shortys look really nice for the money.
I would go with the BBK Chrome shortys!
 
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tomabram

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#8
  • Apr 30, 2005
  • #8
BBK are good headers. I cant say bad about them. Do not get the chrome ones if you can afford the ceramic ones. My car has chrome
BBK's but they already have some rust after a few months.
 

Mike97gt

it doe snot
Founding Member
Jan 26, 1999
10,633
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the people's republic of massachusetts
Apr 30, 2005
#9
  • Apr 30, 2005
  • #9
what hearders do i recomend? hmm well do you mean hearding dogs? or peopel that heard animals?

if it's HEADERS for a mustang you are asking about then i would go with long tubes with a short x pipe for it.. BBK makes them, slp and others. i like the SLP myself.
 

stangman

15 Year Member
Jul 10, 2003
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#10
  • May 1, 2005
  • #10
tomabram said:
Why not get shorties? Yes the longtubes are alittle bit better but really not much. If your car is lowered then DO NOT GET THE LONGTUBES. They stick down a great deal. You should get equal length shorties. I have BBK longtubes but they sit close to the ground. I dont think there really is much of a difference in the brands.
Click to expand...




sorry man, but a 3-7 rwhp gain vs. a 19-25 rwhp gain is a BIG DIFFERENCE. & as far as the lowering thing, that's not true unless you are slammed. i've had two stangs lowered 1 1/2" with LT's & NEVER drug once with them. the only thing i've ever hit was the prochamber & that was only cause i didn't have it tucked up far enough
 
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tomabram

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#11
  • May 1, 2005
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stangman said:
sorry man, but a 3-7 rwhp gain vs. a 19-25 rwhp gain is a BIG DIFFERENCE. & as far as the lowering thing, that's not true unless you are slammed. i've had two stangs lowered 1 1/2" with LT's & NEVER drug once with them. the only thing i've ever hit was the prochamber & that was only cause i didn't have it tucked up far enough
Click to expand...

NO WAY YOU WILL GET 25 RWHP. that means about 30at the crank. Never happen. Lucky to get half that. And 3-7hp for equal shorties? Not even close there either. Your lucky if you get 5hp difference between the 2.
And yes you WILL hit with the longtubes. Do you want a pic of where mine has scraped several times with a 2 inch drop? So yes, my info IS TRUE, VERY TRUE.
 

stangman

15 Year Member
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#12
  • May 1, 2005
  • #12
tomabram said:
NO WAY YOU WILL GET 25 RWHP. that means about 30at the crank. Never happen. Lucky to get half that. And 3-7hp for equal shorties? Not even close there either. Your lucky if you get 5hp difference between the 2.
And yes you WILL hit with the longtubes. Do you want a pic of where mine has scraped several times with a 2 inch drop? So yes, my info IS TRUE, VERY TRUE.
Click to expand...




do a search man, there are several people that have hit that number. if i had been on a dynojet i would have had at least 22 rwhp out of mine. but all i had available to me was a mustang dyno & it put down 19.7 rwhp. & also i made it clear i had a 1 1/2" drop. & i consider a 2" drop slammed (just me i guess). & also, i have yet to see shorty or equal length headers make double digit numbers on a dyno (n/a 4.6 that is). not saying it hasn't happened, but i sure as heck haven't seen it
 

csledd

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Aug 18, 2001
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May 1, 2005
#13
  • May 1, 2005
  • #13
Another vote for SLP LTs here!! This is gonna be kinda long but here goes...

Install took about 2 1/2 days.. we wasted 1 1/2 days before we decided to drop the k-member (if we would've done this to begin with the install would have been much better.)

The difference... well I definately wouldn't want to drive a mustang without them.. ever again. First off I installed my LTs with SLP's Short O/R X-pipe and Steeda cat-back. I lost some of my low end power.. which was great because it makes my daily driving conditions SO MUCH better! When I drove it at first I couldn't tell a difference. I stopped to do a burnout (a very sucky one where I just dump the clutch from 3k rpms and go) and before the LT install I would gain traction back when I shifted to 2nd doing this. Now I don't have traction when I shift to second Another thing I noticed later on with a friend riding with me.. when I would hit the gas from 10mph once it hit 4k it pulled like you wouldn't believe... it pulled so hard that after 4k traction control kicked in. So we tried it without traction control and sure enough we ended up sideways would have never happened before. It pulls like you wouldn't believe after 4k rpms. The way it sounds when I press on the gas.. I love it

Before I got the LTs I posted around about them.. A TON of people told me NOT to do it, that it wasn't worth it.. blah blah blah. I'm SOOOO FREAKIN GLAD I didn't listen to them!!!


P.S... my car is dropped with Steeda Sport Springs.. not a huge drop but I go over speed bumps and drive bumpy roads all the time with no issues
 
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'03GTinFLA

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May 29, 2004
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St. Petersburg, FL
May 1, 2005
#14
  • May 1, 2005
  • #14
June MM&FF dyno tests on 4.6 2V

FRPP Shorties = +3-4 hp with similar torque
Kooks LT's = +11 hp and 12 tq good gains under the entire curve
LT's are on my to-do list.
and you should also look into BBK mid-length headers. They are very close to full LT's with easier install cause they have individual primary's. So you can hook up one pipe at a time and put them alll together at the bottom collector. Supposed to make tranny/clutch work easier, ie no need to touch headers. Little pricey, around 600, and i had a mag with dyno results but can't find the damn thing. GF did some spring cleaning around here
 
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mto gt2000

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#15
  • May 1, 2005
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Shortys really arent worth it in my opinion unless you have strict smog laws.
 

03trubluGT

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Nov 19, 2002
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May 1, 2005
#16
  • May 1, 2005
  • #16
Well, what are your goals?

If you ever plan on going with forced induction, then shorties are fine.

If you are going to stay N/A, then go with longtubes. I went with BBK LTs/OffroadX/Magnaflow Catback and gained 19 RWHP/23 RWTQ.

Tomabram must have never seen a dyno sheet because I can prove I got more than the "lucky 5" HP.

Do a search on my user name. Sometime around May of 2003 I did the swap and posted my before/after dynos here in a thread.

Matt
 
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tomabram

Banned
Apr 1, 2005
66
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May 1, 2005
#17
  • May 1, 2005
  • #17
03trubluGT said:
Well, what are your goals?

If you ever plan on going with forced induction, then shorties are fine.

If you are going to stay N/A, then go with longtubes. I went with BBK LTs/OffroadX/Magnaflow Catback and gained 19 RWHP/23 RWTQ.

Tomabram must have never seen a dyno sheet because I can prove I got more than the "lucky 5" HP.

Do a search on my user name. Sometime around May of 2003 I did the swap and posted my before/after dynos here in a thread.

Matt
Click to expand...

I looked at your post. Very sceptical just like the other members. Didnt see any dyno sheet, you just type in some numbers. Well I gained 85HP from adding my long tubes and 75Ft-lb of torque. Hey, I can type numbers as well.

Read my post. I was talking about EQUAL LENGTH SHORTIES. I didnt know you went from equal length shorties to longtubes. If you did you wasted your money. There is a difference between equal length and regular shorties. Equal length are close to power of longtubes.
You guys think your going to gain SO MUCH power from headers alone. Not going to happen. When the box says 25HP gain, you may get half of that.
 
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IceMans99GT

New Member
May 1, 2005
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Quad Cities, Illinois
May 1, 2005
#18
  • May 1, 2005
  • #18
If you want to save some money just go with the BBk's, I didnt show much gain at all, but with new heads im sure it produced more.
 
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Y2K_MustangVert

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Sep 19, 2003
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May 1, 2005
#19
  • May 1, 2005
  • #19
Just got my LT's installed two days ago, and I haven't noticed this big a difference since my gear install. I got my LT's and matching x pipe for around $450, sure they aren't SLP's, but I can pretty much guarantee the power increase is the same. Do yourself a favor and just get them, don't second guess this mod. The sound is amazing with LT's, alot different than with the stock manifolds. Tomabram, you my friend need to use the search function and watch alittle more TV, since every dyno graph that I have ever seen with LT's are netting between 20-26 rwhp.
 

stangman

15 Year Member
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May 1, 2005
#20
  • May 1, 2005
  • #20
tomabram said:
I looked at your post. Very sceptical just like the other members. Didnt see any dyno sheet, you just type in some numbers. Well I gained 85HP from adding my long tubes and 75Ft-lb of torque. Hey, I can type numbers as well.

Read my post. I was talking about EQUAL LENGTH SHORTIES. I didnt know you went from equal length shorties to longtubes. If you did you wasted your money. There is a difference between equal length and regular shorties. Equal length are close to power of longtubes.
You guys think your going to gain SO MUCH power from headers alone. Not going to happen. When the box says 25HP gain, you may get half of that.
Click to expand...




man, i was at my shop back home & saw at least 4 n/a 4.6 cars go on the dyno for doing that (keep in mind it's a mustang dyno & reads lower) & none of which gained any less than 16 rwhp. next time i go home to WV i'll have them print my dyno sheets, jsut so you can have your "proof". but seeing the type person you are you'll prolly say they are chopped
 
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