I bought a 87-88 f150 4x4 302. And a pretty sloppy Exhaust to boot.
The previous owner cut out the cats, and left off the egr crossover tube, and the old cast exhaust manifold is cracked. Inspection/emission time is comming round, so I wont to plan on getting her back legal again.
She only cost $500 total, so I'm not going back with brand new, but my question is will the stock mustang shorty headers bolt on to my block? Seen a few sets on ebay for 20 or 30 bucks. Or would I be better off going to a new set of shorty? And is going to a old set of cats of of a wrecking yard the wrong thing to do too?? I appeciate the insite. Thanks, Barca....

 

yes they will bolt on but the collector flange is really close to the firewall making it difficult for most shops to make the rest of the Y pipe. i would find another set if you can. i would not get old cats period. you can find some on ebay really cheap also check out this site
http://www.ecatalyticconverter.com/ they sell stock Y pips with cats for a great price. good luck

 

When I had Rustang headers in my 87 they were nowhere near the firewall, and the exhaust shop modified the y-pipe to fit. I was in the same boat, spend lots of $$ on a new manifold, or use free headers.

 

how much work has to be done to the ypipe? I have access to a set of stock GT headders myself.

 

Make passenger side flange a little bigger, make ~18-24" of new pipe on driver side that reaches further rearward to mate up to header (header exits rear of fourth cylinder, while manifold exits almost underneath third cylinder on driver side).

BTW, the 93 down headers fit much better than the 94-95 headers.

 

the stock headers are just barly better then stock manifolds. I personally wouldnt bother unless you absolutly have to.

 

So fox body headers will fit ? Got cracked manifold on 94 f150 found used set of bbk shorties of a fix body and am doing new exhaust system anyway and I know bbk are supposed to be some of the best in business

 

Fit the engine.. yes. Fit the stock truck Y pipe... no.

 

But If I planned on running a different exhaust system like true duals it would work?

 

Probably not, the exits will interfere with the chassis at some point

 

I am currently on the same boat, got a 1987 Ford f150 4x4 with a mustang HO engine in it. After looking around at the engine i noticed the headers are not properly installed and its a y pipe that comes down into a muffler with cats missing. i noticed that the y pipe routes really oddly through the frame on the driver side and bends into the passenger side. I think a dual exhaust can work but will require some custom pipe bending. at the moment i am just trying to get this thing to pass smog so i am going to just cut a piece of the pipe out and drop in a cat and try to properly install the headers but honestly i am not very hopeful i can without dropping some cash. you guys got any tips? Also i have heard mustangs in the late 80's had 4 cats!!! is that true? i am gonna get one high flow cat and hope that works.