well i tried to ask this in the exhaust section but no answers,so ill try it here, ive got a 95 f150 5.0l 4wd, im thinking about getting some shorty headers, does anyone have this set up? any good or bad things about them?

 

No personal experience with headers but everyone on this forum swears that shorties are not worth the box that they come in. The general consensus is that longtubes are definitely the way to go. Longtube should pick you up somewhere in the range of 20-40hp and some more low end torque too.

If you don't want to deal with fabbing the exhaust for longtubes then most guys say to stick with factory manifolds because of their better durability over shorties.

 

Shorty headers are kinda bad for low end torque, which the 5.slow I mean 5.0 lacks. They give you better flow in the upper rpm range= more horsepower at higher rpms. I have heard that they are actually worse on low end torque than the stock manifolds. The good thing about them tho is (in theory) that they bolt right up to the stock y pipe. Alot of people who run shorties also run a bassani y pipe which helps more with power and torque than the headers do. If you do go with shorties, find a set with a thick flange so they dont warp and leak. I personally prefer the long tube header, dual exhaust setup. Thats what I did and it helps ALOT with torque, but they are a pain to install and you have to make or have someone make a custom y pipe for you or run dual exhaust the whole way back. This can get expensive and time consuming, but is worth it in the end. Either way, get ceramic coated headers, or stainless or aluminized ones. If you get painted ones, use oven cleaner to remove the oil from them and paint them with high temp spray paint like stove pipe paint. This will prevent the dreaded paint burning off and headers rusting scenario that happens all to often.

 

Chris you beat me to the first post while I was typing!

 

The great Skandocious reigns victorious once again

 

I've run both on 5.0's. Shorties are not worth the cardboard they arrive in. Period.

Long tubes all the way! Your 5.0 needs all the low end help it can get. A good exhaust shop can fix you up a nice y pipe for cheap. Speak to one prior to venturing on to purchasing parts.

 

A lot of our customers love the Bassani Y Pipe...

You can check out some customer reviews here: http://motorhaven.autoanything.com/exhausts-mufflers/61A2673A0A0.aspx

 

I'd have to steer you away from that product. Yes it is a nice Y pipe, I used to have one.... but for that price (~ $400) you can have TWO Y-pipes bent, welded and installed. It was certainly one purchase I did regret. Talk to a custom exhaust shop. They can build you one blindfolded and much cheaper.

On the contrary, the itsy bitsy Bassani catalytic converter that came with the Y pipe has worked great. Passed the sniffer test in California twice and Washington once.

Mike