I know shorties are not the best but they are my only option for the time being.

Who makes a good set? I see JBA almost everywhere. Price is not the major concern, best flow and overall quality are more important.

Opinions?

 

I like my Bassani equal length headers. I had the JBA's on first, and if I remember correctly they didn't put down as much HP as the bassani's are.

 

Bassani Shorty headers are a PITA to install.

I've argued with a lot of people on here over their performance.
One last time:

2 things to keep in mind, most people replace the stock exhaust manifold with short headers and expect gains, however the bottleneck becomes the 4 catalytic convertors. since most leave the stock convertor's in place and only replace the manifold.
I added high-flow cats to allieviate all bottlenecks in the exhaust.

other thing is the stock manifold is designed so that all the exhaust from the front cylinders flow past the rear cylinders. Also it is the same part number as the regular (non supercharged 5.4L) there was no engineering to accomodate for the increase air flow through the exhaust. (remember an engine is simply air pump, the more air that flows through it, the more power it makes) so yo have a lot more exhaust (supercharger) flowing past the rear cylinders. This will cause the rear cylinders to become hotter than the front ones. This could lead to detonation in those rear cylinders.
Now, some people have realized hot rear cylinders and tried to blame the cause on poor coolant flow to the rear cylinders. They've added a coolant tube from the rear of the heads to the other head to balance out the coolant. alll this does is balance out the pressure but does not necessarily promote coolant flow.
So by having headers on there all the cylinders can get rid of the hot exhaust equally, and not create hot spots in those rear cylinders.

 

I-menace - please email me at droypearson@comcast.net - I just bought a '99 and would like to talk to you about your mods and tune.

Thanks and sorry (not really) for the hi-jack.

Madferr

I had the Dynatech long tubes and high flow cats - finished with a single x pipe maggy. The sound was incredible I can't honestly claim a hp gain since I didn't have a baseline dyno - I just knew with the KB I had to improve flow.

I agree with the menace if you don't do anything about the four stock cats it doesn't make a hellofalot of diff!

My recommendation is wait until you can afford the real thing. Unless the enjoyment of installing the shorties is too resisting

Good Luck!


D-Day

 

Unfortunately, nobody makes oval port long tubes to fit my application.

 

fire up the welder then. hey mike care to divulge some info on that intake setup you have?

 

Happy to do so.

Start with a Cobra 4V blower manifold, split it in half vertically and widen it about 1 1/2" then split it in half horizontally and add about 1/2" (our IC is deeper than the Cobra), weld it all together and remachine all of the working surfaces.

Then make a new cover plate, then a riser for the blower, o-ring everything so you don't need gaskets and you're good to go.

 

dayum...

 

madf,

I'd look for SS, equal length, and the longest collector. As long as they are SS you may be able to go up inside them and grind/trim the excess out. (make it as smooth as is possible)

Rich

 

I used the Bassani '03 Cobra mid length headers on my truck, I know they will fit on the passenger side but it depends how you have the drivers side of the motor set up. I scrapped the stock oil filter casting on the drivers side and just had to cut a small corner of the motor mount to get the header to fit but with the factory oil filter casting on there I'm not sure if it would work or not.
Dale

DOHC Single Turbo