dsg04gt

Hey guys, i know this has probably been asked before, but if i wanted to do headers in my driveway, is it worth it? Im doing the midpipe and catback myself at the same time, and my question is can it be done with simplicity? I think ive heard people say that you have to lift the engine a couple inches to access them. If so, should i just shell out for the shop to do it? Is there any added difficuly with shorties compared to LT's? Any help is really appreciated.

Cornbread01

well ima be putting on my shorites next week so if you can wait that long ill let you know how hard it is.... it doesnt seem to hard you do have to raise the engine and might have to collapse the sterring shaft and remove the starter motor sounds like a lot but from what ive seen on my car 00 gt does not seem to hard. just dont bend corners and youll save yourself a headace ill keep you posted on when i install

jmmorgan82

i'm gonna warn you right now..if you have to remove the starter make sure you have about a 12 pack, plenty of extensions and swivels. took me 4 hours just to get the top bolt off.

dsg04gt

ug, i have to get shorties due to the flippin cali emissions, but i can get any midpipe and switch it out myself for smogging. The problem is that i dont want an 8 hour install job, followed by a 16 hour total removal/reinstall job of long tubes. The shorties are 300 bucks, and the install, any guesses? around the same price maybe?

98MustangSTL

+1 You'll definitley need to take some time while removing the starter. I would say that is the most time consuming part of the job. As far as headers go, I will be putting Longtubes on in about 1 week. I can let you know how it goes.

Cornbread01

yea i live in cali to emission sucks, were about in cali are you

dsg04gt

Im in Ventura County, near Westlake to be precise... Between The Valley and Santa Barbara ( SO CAL)

Cornbread01

oooo san jose bay area hear.... if you have the tools do it yourself and put the money you save to another upgrade i plane on doing the same thing ima get o/r mid pipe but still cant decide on x or h im going x..... easy change every 2 years... if you know a shop that will smog for you then go with long tubes but they are hard to find. when do you plan on installing

2000GT4.6

Its going to be a HUGE MASSIVE pain in the *** to try to do this in a driveway on jackstands. It was still terrible with the car supported by 3 forklifts almost 6feet in the air when I did it. There are just a couple bolts that are REAL hard to get to and tighten.

The manifolds acutally came out pretty easy, the hard part is getting it all back in. Plus, you need to be able to take the motor mounts out and move the engine around. Its just gonna be a major PITA in the driveway.

Honestly, if I were you I would not bother do to it with shorties anyway. I have seen plenty of dynos where people only picked up 2-4 whp over the stock manifolds with shorties. 2-4 whp is not worth all of hte cost and cursing.

jmmorgan82

this is just one of my hands after finally getting the starter off, the other one was pretty banged up also.