Mustang Novice

A couple of questions about headers:

1) What are advantages/disadvantages of shorty vs. long tube headers? I thought shorty's were for use with high-flow catalytic converters and long-tubes were used when removing the cats (isn't this the same for off-road vs. regular x-pipes?). In another thread someone was making it sound like one was better for drag racing and the other was better for road racing due to differences in back pressure (so I'm confused, not hard to do). We don't have emissions testing in Florida, but we have noise ordinances.
2) Who's selling headers for the '05? I found shorty's from Ford Racing and JBA and long-tube from JBA, any others yet?
TIA

281GT

I've been messing with cars for 27 years. I always have found that one of the best horsepower for dollar gains was to be had with long tube headers. At the moment however, long tube headers are expensive for the 05 Mustang so I would wait until the price comes down. The X pipe also is a little bette than the stock H pipe although I am not sure the gain would justify the cost. The rest of the system is already 2 1/2" stainless madrel bent so you won't see any improvement by replacing the pipes. You might see a slight improvment with aftermarket mufflers but according to what I have seen the gain is very little if any and again does not justify the cost. The long tube headers will do the most for you, at least in the exhaust dept.

Mustang Novice

Thanks for the reply.
JBA has ceramic coated long-tube headers for $1299 and MAC has them for $469. What's the $830 difference?LMPerformance.com