i know a guy who works at the ford motor company i was asking what kind of headers should i get for my 1998 f150 4.6 he then told me there is no need in paying 3 to 6 hundred dollarsto try to do what ford motor company done in the first place when they made the exhaust manifold plenty large enough i then looked at mine and as far as bang for your buck it is no diffrence really i know i will get some explosive remarks for starting this thread but here it is yall run with convence me to get headers

 

reason 1 theyre awesome
reason 2 power gains
reason 3 how could u not want headers lol
reason 4 i wouldnt think a manifold would flow as well as a header

 

according to the ford man who studies them he told me the factory manifold will let off the same amount of exhaust as the headers will the factory exhaust manifold was designed with headers in mind you see they are competing with dodge chevs gmc honda toyota so they made exhaust just as good as a header so they can still say i got more power without aluminum block and without headers that is what was told to me by an ase cert ford machanic specialized 4.6 5.4 he said they done test on fact manifold and headers and the differance was the header beat the fact manifold by just a cple of points he was just giving me advice by saying for 3 to 6 hundred dollars the headers just isnt worth it

 

long tubes, there is no comparison. thank you

 

All you got to do is look and hold at a set of headers and you'll realize that:

a) they look way better
b) they are considerably lighter than the heavy cast iron manifold
c) there is far more flow area

The less resistance the engine has to pushing out exhaust gases the more power you will have. Same thing goes for your intake, bigger smoother shorter straighter the tube, the less losses you'll have and your engine doesn't use as much power trying to pull air into the motor. Get the headers, you won't regret it.

 

Long tubes will be the only gain in power.

 

proof.........the only change from one dyno to the other is the headers and exhaust.

I know I only thought I gained 6hp but as pointed out to me later in the thread I gained considerable (20) or so hp throughout the low rpm range.

 

i am just going by the ford mechanic he says the factory manifold is just as good as a header and just as much exhaust will leave the factory manifold as it will in a header for this particular engine all i am sayin i do know that i run strait pipes with 3 inch tips on mine and it sounds pretty dam good

 

Sooo did you post your original post to get advice or just to say MY mechanic said this? Because you have a lot of good advice here and people that have dyno graphs to prove that long tube headers gain horsepower-PERIOD. If you have the money, buy them. If not, don't. If you are happy with the sounds and performance then why change it?

 

So are you asking for our opinions just to end up backing up your mechanic anyways?

 

shorty headers are the same as the stock manifolds as far as flow and power go, long tubes are a different story as you see by the last post by efuehrin and several others in other threads...

 

i like to get advice and oppinions from people who have been there and done that i thought to myself long headers has got to be better than factory manifold but according to the man that helped designed the 4.6 engine manifolds and all they dont he was the one that told me this like i said before i only wanted opinions

 

First I am an ASE cert Master mechanic. Second, invest in a keyboard with a period button. Your run on sentences are horrible to read and make it hard to understand. Third DYNO test have PROVEN gains with long tube headers. Anyone that says they will not create gains doesnt know what they are taking about or is misinformed. Why do you think companies now install shortie headers on stock engines over manifolds? More power and less weight.

 

Ford designed the engine tune with the stock exhaust, so yes your mechanic is partially correct. If however you want the best possible performance from your engine, get a set of properly designed headers, tube diameter, tube length and collector size for the anticipated power level. Then have a custom tune made for the engine with headers.

If the engine has 200 HP stock I would design the headers for 250 HP then get the fuel and spark maps set by a reputable tuner.

 

so the facts proved to you on dyno sheets aren't good enough



let me se if i can find some old track slips and see if that will get you off your "friends" leg