Yeah, I know this has been covered before, but I'm looking for the latest info on people who have gotten shorty headers, and if they felt any gains, and most importanly, seen any gains on the dyno.

I've got Brent's H-pipe on order, and would be willing to do the header install at the same time if it's worth it and I'll see any gains worth the price.

What say ye?

 

waste of money and time.buy long tubes and you will be happier.

 

I dont have shorties but from everything that I have seen, if you can justify spending ~$500 for like 2, maybe 3-5hp throughout the rpm, go for it. Personally, I think its a waste of time and money to install these things cause you just arent going to feel a difference over the stock manifolds unless you cut out the stock cats.

If you are an owner of shorties and claim to feel a difference throughout the rpm range of your engine, I think you need to get your hiney looked at cause it cant measure worth poo (IMO).

I think going to a shorty just allows the car to sound better IMO, not much more than that.

If I was a reviewer of performance products for these cars I would put shorties into the scrap box with the Intake Manifold Runner Control Plates (unless upgraded for use with direct port n2o injection) and 62mm Throttle Bodies. But you folks probably are thankful that I dont review products for the mags.

-Dan

 

i'm pretty sure surfnsocal dynoed his at 15hp without a tune, but that may have been in connection with his new x pipe

 

Mmm... I might just get my stockers ceramic coated to reduce under hood temps and look better, and call it a day.

Tech Line Coatings:
- Black Satin is the most advanced exhaust system coating available
- Withstands 2000f temperatures
- Reduces underhood temperatures, reduces exhaust manifold surface temperatures
- Improve exhaust gas velocity, increase H.P.

.

How many hours to take 'em off?

 

I'm still in the shorties dilemma, I'm thinking of the Hooker CERAMIC coated Shorty headers, best I've seen was $512, still kinda iffy and grey in this area.......

 

I don't recall ever seeing the before/after dyno sheets on that...

 

Shorties are worth it if you plan on adding a supercharger or turbo, I would not settle for anything less than ceramic coated with a turbo though. As for which company to go with it all comes down to looks IMO, they are all within a couple of hp of each other, the FRPP ceramics can be purchased for $369.99 coated and $269.99 bare. JBA make the most hp but are a "bundle of pipes" and take up a lot of room in the engine bay, only good for N/A cars I think. The are easy to install but very time consuming. Devote one entire day to the project if you haven't changed headers before, it would be more like install the headers and do the h-pipe while your in there as opposed to vice versa.

 

do shorty headers change the exhaust tone any from stock?

 

SurfnSoCals and RRobello's got a LITTLE deeper and got some extra gurgles/burbles. I was planning on doing the JBA Shorties/Straight Pipes before I got the borlas.

 

So why shorties with a blower? Would LT work?

 

Long tubes would surely be better than shorties with a S/C, my contention is that they are better than the stock manifolds if you are running a boosted engine. If I was running a S/C I would have stuck with my JBA long tubes for sure.

I do notice a sound that isn's quite as loud withour cats but the tone and amplitude is still very much there with my shorties and catted h-pipe (factory).

 

Ahhh ok thanks for the info!

 

Is there any way to pass California Emissions with long tubes? Would O2 sims get a car through with no problems?

 

Long tubes will pass inspection in Cali with a catted h-pipe. The longtubes on an 05 GT will probably produce no more emissions than required by law but the car would fail the visual inspection no matter how clean it ran, just the tough thing about Cali. O2 sims do nothing for the emissions of the car but tell the computer that there is a consistently clean exhaust so that there is no CEL, with the 05 you don't even need them because you can just turn the rear 02 sensors off in the tune. You could use them I guess if you didn't want to bother your tuner for a xtr file.

 

do all stations in Cali do a visual check?

 

I would bet yes, here in Missouri we are pretty lax about inspections, we don't even sniff test any cars unless you live in the big city like St Louis or KC, but even the back woods inspection stations do visuals. I failed one with my F250 that had no cats but I had to prove that some of the diesels came without cats from the factory if they passed emissions. That was Ford's answer to the emissions, if it passed let it out the door, if it didn't then slap a cat on it and retest, if it failed again slap another cat on it, if it failed again it needed tuning.

 

California Highway Patrol can also write you up, if they are in the mood to do so!


Paul

 

they would pop the hood and see what kind of headers you have? :scratch:

 

They would pop the hood and see what headers you have!

This is up to the Cops on patrol. Over the years I've been pulled over twice. Havn't had the problem yet with the '05.