DillonBerkley

My thoughts exactly. Thats why I'm willing to try the trouble of making 5.4l fit. I'm a little bit worried though cause most of the reading of I've done is suggesting it's just short of a miracle to get them to bolt up and removing material from the bell housing is a must. I'll be installing them around the 15-16 of this month. I'll get back to you then and let you if they worked and whether or not I think its worth going through the trouble.

deanofay

Please keep me posted on how it goes I would really like to do it but dont want to get involved in something way over my head

DillonBerkley

No freaking way they will fit The bolt that holds the starter silinoid on is in the way and you'd have to grind close to 3/8 of an inch off which would destroy the bolt. Sorry but we're stuck with shorties. What i don't understand is if they would make a slight change in the bend of the tube it would fit or just make the tubes 1/4 of an inch thinner in diameter cause it doesn't need to move as much air as a 5.4l. Don't understand why no one will make headers for 2002-2003 f150s but they won't even consider it. Oh one more thing...if you've never messed with a manifold before, don't. Find someone who has to help you. I broke a ing bolt off in the block.

deanofay

i heard people saying that they heated the pipes up to move then over so they would fit. this sucks though... i don't understand why no one considers making long tubes for the 2003 4.6l. and for the snapped bolt what are you doing now?

DillonBerkley

The broken stud wasn't really a problem. Just drilled a hole and used a screw extrator kit. The shorties did produce obvious gains and tbh honest they are as loud as or louder than I want them to be. 4.6l is a loud motor. You could heat them up but if you don't bend them right then it will kind of defeat the purpose of free flow advantage. I don't know why they don't and its just for 2002 and 2003 f150s.

djquik1

Why not go to a good exhaust shop that has the equipment to fix the problem? Take some pictures of where you have clearance problems and have them make a new tube or two and weld it up. Might cost some extra cash, but in the long run, you will have a set of long tubes that fit. With what I have paid for long tubes in the past on other vehicles that were niche or not a main stay production, it would have cost less to get a custom set done.

DillonBerkley

I ended up putting a set of shorties on and sending the longtubes back while they were still under the return waranty. I think I'll just leave the shorties on for right now and if I ever start pushing a good amount of horsepower out of the motor then I'll upgrade and as much of a pain in the *** it is to tighten the header bolts I'm kinda glad I ended up going with shorties.

vfast

you did the right thing.... long tubes aren't going to give you 20hp on a stock engine and you will see better throttle response at lower rpm with those shorties.. you could always wrap your exhaust which will speed up the exhaust gases out the back....much cheaper than long tubes and your automatic will love the lower temps!