Shorty Headers vs. Long Tube Headers

[mrkevo]

What is the difference between the two? What is better? What will one give you that the other won't? Also, what is your ideal exhaust system and why?

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[onederful100]

LT's are longer than shorties
LT's will give better performance than shorties.
and so far the ideal system for me is LT's, o/r x pipe, muffler deletes, and M80's.
the LT's and o/r midpipe takes care of the performance, the x pipe and the mufflers are more for sound preference.

[mrkevo]

Originally Posted by onederful100

LT's are longer than shorties
LT's will give better performance than shorties.
and so far the ideal system for me is LT's, o/r x pipe, muffler deletes, and M80's.
the LT's and o/r midpipe takes care of the performance, the x pipe and the mufflers are more for sound preference.

Thank you very much. I don't know if I wanna do an off road pipe because I don't want to fail emissions. Effin Utah.

[jahudso2]

Most people on here will say that long tubes have much better gains than shorties, but that is because when you do long tubes, they get an off road x pipe with it. Most people on here agree than an off road x pipe alone will net you 10 rwhp and most long tubes only net 25 rwhp total so you are only getting 15 hp from the headers. The bbk shorties do fall short at high rpms, but i think that is from their design. The jba shorties look very promising from the design, the dyno on their website, and the dyno one user here posted up a while ago. Dont be so quick to jump on the bandwagon of long tube headers when a well designed shorty header will net you around the same gains for much cheaper.

[mrtstang]

I just had long tubes w/h pipe installed.

I had a MRT h, which came off in favor of the shorty h.

That being said... i gained 6hp/6tq n/a, and 20hp/56tq N20.

From a sound standpoint the long tubes are going to be better than shorties.

So if you are staying n/a do them for sound only, (they may dyno a couple of hp better than shorties on an n/a application) and if you are going to add some serious hp then long tubes hands down.

[SirKnightTG]

The LT's will give most of their gains up high and moderate low and mid.

Shorties give most gains down low (larger low gains than LT) but don't give much if anything up high.

If you can swing it, LT is the way to go. They not only allow you to make more (and this grows as you mod more and more) but they sound the best too.

But if you can't do LT due to inspections then go with tuned shorties like JBA. JBA makes the best shorties IMO.

Anything is an improvement over stock so don't feel bad if you can't go LT. But it's possible you can swing LT even in emissions states/counties if you put some high flow cats on them. But some places will do a visual inspection and look for long headers and will fail you. California is like that.

Luckily for me I'm in Tx so LT FTMFW!

[SirKnightTG]

I'd like to add that even on a N/A engine, cams benefit a lot from LT. Max gains from cams will be with LT.

[jahudso2]

the only reason people think that shorties dont make any hp up top is because the only dyno anyone has seen with shorties by an independant company is the one of the bbks. the design of the bbk's is dumb because one of their pipes makes a very sharp 180* bend. I believe this restriction creates a low pressure vacuum in the exhaust at high rpms and actually creates more backpressure than stock which is why bbk shorties actually lost 2-3 hp up top on that test. JBAs were designed with much smoother flowing bends and therefore will not have the drop off up top. Check out their dyno on their website.

[mrkevo]

Originally Posted by SirKnightTG

The LT's will give most of their gains up high and moderate low and mid.

Shorties give most gains down low (larger low gains than LT) but don't give much if anything up high.

If you can swing it, LT is the way to go. They not only allow you to make more (and this grows as you mod more and more) but they sound the best too.

But if you can't do LT due to inspections then go with tuned shorties like JBA. JBA makes the best shorties IMO.

Anything is an improvement over stock so don't feel bad if you can't go LT. But it's possible you can swing LT even in emissions states/counties if you put some high flow cats on them. But some places will do a visual inspection and look for long headers and will fail you. California is like that.

Luckily for me I'm in Tx so LT FTMFW!

So it seems LT's are the way to go if the pocketbook and local laws will accommodate them. Thanks everyone! I appreciate your feedback.

[MadMike1337]

which would be a better brand of shorties between BBK tuned or JBA's? im curious to other responses