onefastv6

long tubes are expensive as hell though over a thousand for the new jba longtubes if you want them polished

chevykiller

A. - you can have cats with any headers
B. - the performance of shorties is minimal over your stock so what are you spending the money for with shorties? If for looks, okay - but who will see them?
C. - Several exhaust systems will give you a descent sound if you think you want headers for that reason. (Borla SLP, etc, etc..)
D. - If you do go with L/T's - you need to know that when you need to get into your tranny for ANY reason (clutch, shifter, etc, etc,) you will have to remove them EVERYTIME to be able to get to the tranny. Extreme pain in the butt and if you have someone else do your work, you will ALWAYS get charged more because of it for now on.
E. Everyone is going to say the best headers are the ones they have or the ones they want. Very little PERFORMANCE diferences between all the L/T's so you're good to go with any of them.

Hope this helps.

EDIT - Not that it makes any difference, but I personally have the JBA L/T's

jbailer

Who can really say which headers are better than others. People get caught up in names or what they heard from someone else, stuff like that. Unless they are bench tested by an independant company, who's going to say which is the best. I have Kook's custome long tube headers. I can't tell you they are better than others but I can tell you they sound great, they fit perfect and require no modifications. -Joe

W1ldcat

I see SLP long tube stainless for $742 shipped. Anyone use those?

Hiboost

one of the mags did a test on the shorties a few months back....I will find it and edit the post...

CrazyAl

Chevykiller is right on!


Yes, longtubes are expensive. But, my opinion is still that if you are looking for performance, shortys aren't a good idea. Yes, longtubes cost more. But it seems silly to spend a few hundred $$ and many hours of work (even more $$$ if you pay someone to do the install) to end up with a measly 3-5 HP. You can spend a bit more money and essentially the same amount of effort (or cost) for the install, and end up with a LOT more power.

Let's figure that an install costs $500 in labor. Would you rather spend $900 for 3-5 HP (shortys) or would you rather spend $1100 for 20HP or more? That extra $200 will upgrade you from the Ford or JBA shortys to COATED Hooker longtubes. If you buy the painted headers the price difference is even less.


Personally, I prefer stainless headers. There are many different choices and like jbailer said, all the longtubes made by different companies are going to have extremely similar performance.

I bought the Dynatech kit becasue of completeness. I knew that I wanted longtubes, an X-pipe, and high-flow cats. The Dynatech kit includes the headers, cats, and X-pipe, as well as all the other hardware needed (clamps, bolts, gaskets, o2 harness extentions, etc.). I figured that if I pieced together my kit from stuff from other vendors, I'd end up spending more money and I'd have more hassle fitting everything together. I have worked with Dynatechs before on other cars and I know they are well made. Performance-wise, I'm sure the headers are no different than Hooker or Kook or JBA or whoever, but I do know that Dynatech's high-flow cats are among the best one can buy. I have seen a magazine comparision of performance cats, and the Dynatechs came out on top. This seemed like an excellent deal to me.

Daniel60

Yeah, have you ever seen the JBA ad for shorty headers where it promises 21+ horsepower and 25+ LB-FT and in small writing underneath its saids with performance tuning and CAI. What a krock of *hit. Like yeah you have got to be a *ucking retard to purchase these things.