sounds nice man congrats,im installin my mac LT's as we speak and its not as bad as i thoguth it would be i just have to get the pass side done now , also i took my che-k memer out it was in teh way big time and i dont see how that will affect the alinement cuae the 05,06 cars didnt even come with one, it is just a brace it has nothgin to do with tire alinement

 

I had bought my G forces Y-97's from NTB and with that there is free hazard balancing and rotation. I went for the rotation and balancing. The guys over there where driving Mustangs too so they where asking questions about the headers, so I explained to them about the K member.

They checked my alignment for free, and indeed there was no horizontal misalignment, however the vertical (the vertical angle the wheels hit the pavement) was about 1.6 degrees off which they fixed for free. (the bar apparently affects the vertical alignment which makes sense if you think about it.) It was not much, but they took care it for me.

So thats the final update on this issue.

 

Thanks for the update vasman, I'll have to keep that in mind when doing mine...

How is the seat of the pants feel? Can you notice a difference up top the RPM range?

 

What i mean was how much did it cost you guys for the headers and other parts needed, not how much to install.

Also, notice any changes in gas milage?

 

i dont see how it affects alinement when the 05, and 06 models dont come with it, but good to know man thanks

 

I went to home depot and I bought the Husky ratcheting wrenches. Buy the ones with the alternate direction button! not the ones that you flip around to change direction! Cost abt 60 for the whole set. You only need 13mm and 15 mm if you want to go cheap, but I would recommend 8mm and 10mm as well.

A pneumatic ratcheting wrench and an Impact wrench is a luxury to have but they will help a lot if you have access to compressed air. You can buy both under 100 bucks.

You will also need deep sockets for 10mm 13mm 15mm and a 3/16 socket (to remove the stock threaded studs on the manifolds) and appropriate size ratchet (I use 3/8's with 1/4 inch adapter for the small sockets and 1/2 to 3/8's for my impact wrench) a good set of sockets with a ratchet and the adapters should not run more than 40 bucks.
Really important to have a set of extensions for your sockets (usually a 3- 6 - and 12 inch extensions that you can combine) and a articulate extension 20-25 buck altogether.

You also need a regular wrench to remove the oxygen sensors. It is a big one. think 19mm but I am not sure. Someone fill in. Nothing fancy though.

TIP. when taking off the manifolds some of the nuts will come out with the studs some will not. The ones that do not, just loosen for a turn or two and if possible use the 3/16 socket to remove in one piece (otherwise you just doubling your efforts). admittedly there will be some you can not do that so just remove them after you remove the manifolds completely.
WARNING! Make sure your 3/16 is all the way on the stud. If possible tap it in till its stuck on there. You do not want to round them, it is going to be big pita to take em off if you do that.

 

I do feel an increase through out. It is really awesome to hear them if you hold the 3 or 4 th gear (I have 4.10s on mind you) at 3500 to 4000 rpm for couple of seconds and then floor it.... man it is orgasmic. It sounds like a twin engine cigarette boat on acceleration.. you have the syncronisation pulses from the h pipe with the tween exhaust...

TIP
Another thing I remembered during the Install.... Make sure your headers are clean. Mine where full of metal shavings and dust.. you pay 1300 dollars for this equipment, you would hope the ****ing thing will be free of garbage....

 

Thanks for the informative post. This is exactly what I was looking for!

 

I paid 1289.00 for Kooks 1.75" long tubes, high-flow catted X-pipe and O2 extendors. I also had all pieces (headers, midpipe and cats) coated with JetHot Sterling Silver coating to reduce temperatures under the hood. That was like 450.00
I am installing them myself Saturday so that will be free.

 

Forgot a 10mm socket for the ****ing starter... (I also added to the list above)