hi, need some help here, I am in the middle of doing some motor work on my 91 f150 4x. While I am at it, was thinking of adding headers. how much difference would headers make on a stock 5.0 engine?

 

shorty's about 5-15hp according to posts. And long up to 20 hp 25 hp

The long tubes will help on bottom end grunt . I don't use them because I have trouble placing cat on drivers side . And don't like to run pipe lower than trans ( yes I've crushed some pipes as well as trans pan ) But performance wise they are way to go .

The shorty's are nice if you have emissions to go through. ( I've heard stories of people getting hassled about the cat not being in stock location .ETC) And you can use stock y pipe or get a performance 1 .

In my past truck I found that if I open up exhaust to much its bad for performance .
What ever route you thank get a good set. Or you will have flange and rust problems. Good luck

 

I have long tube headers on my 5.0. I could tell a difference but I dont know if it was because of the headers or because I got rid of the stock y pipe and went to duals. I do know they sound alot better and my truck doesnt seem to have to downshift as often when going up hills.

 

What kind of longtubes do you have? Where did you get them?

 

I'm happy with the Ford Motorsport Shorty headers. I also slapped in a bassani y pipe and cat. Passed emissions flawlessly and some solid power gains.

 

Just get a good set with think flanges . If you go cheap you will be changing out gaskets and having them rust on you good luck .

I have a set of Ford racing ceramic (look like chrome) coated shorty heads to mine if I ever get money to do exhaust.

 

[QUOTE=lostin90s]
The shorty's are nice if you have emissions to go through. ( I've heard stories of people getting hassled about the cat not being in stock location /QUOTE]

I've had this issue before for California and Washington state emissions. I passed both with flying colors, but the visual inspection can get hairy. They didn't believe I even had a catalytic converter since the 2 stock cats were removed and replaced by the bassani y pipe and cat. The new cat that comes with the bassani system is the size of a soup can. If they give you any issues about removing stock cats, tell them you tore up the stock system offroad. Thus, justifying a replacement. Don't tell them it was replaced for performance. That is illegal (CA and WA not sure about other states) if the stock cats are functional.

If you don't have a mig welding setup, pay the money to have an exhaust shop clean it up. It does wonders for the visual inspection, if needed.

 

I bought a set of summit racing long tubes, which actually turned out to be flowtechs. They only cost $125 and they fit no problem.

 

thanks for all the info. i like the idea of more low end grunt w/ the long tubes. been looking at some hookers.
In the process of pulling the heads at the moment so i have time to study this more.