Looking to get some headers for the fx4 soon I've read a lot about the jba shorty headers and those are really the way I'm leaning right now. (Once I save up the money) they are pretty steep in price but people say it's worth it. I've got the 5.4 in my truck and was wondering if anyone is running the jba headers? If not what are yall running? Price? Quality? Performance? And also I've heard header installs on these trucks seem to a pain in the rear. Anyone who has done it before I would love to know just what km getting into before I drop the cash on some headers.

 

Unless you go with long tubes, you are pretty much throwing away money.
Kooks, OBX are some good ones. [MENTION=113]Jbrew[/MENTION] can give you some more info.

 

I agree, shorties arent worth it at all. LTs are the way to go but in all honestly in N/A form you aren't going to gain much that's worth the install and redoing of the exhaust.

Rule of thumb on the Lightning boards is that LTs aren't worth it until your over 500RWHP.

American Racing, Kooks, and Dynatech are the best brands for LTs. OBX are hit and miss with quality from the people I have spoken to that have tried them.

Wayne

 

i have pacesetter LT's on mine. i have had any issues at all with them.

 

I have JBAs on my truck and all they did was change the exhaust tone, no performance gains at all. For a real difference go long tubes.

 

Dyno data witnessed -

Truck 98 F150 4x4, 5.4L NA (not mine)

Engine mods, - 98 block standard with the PI heads mod, 4:10 gearing.

HP 260 RWHP after Dynatech LT's & Spintechs.

The truck Dyno'ed from factory manifolds to shorty headers with no gains.
A short time later (real short lol), the truck was then Dyno'ed with LT's and showed a 30hp/35trq gain.

This was awhile ago, but some of you may be familiar with this truck and user; Built54 (Joey).
The truck later had a built lightning engine installed that ran very good. There is some you tube vids out there. I bet Wayne knows truck and maybe it's owner.
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Other than that, I installed Pacesetter LT's, modified/welded 3" HF converters to the 3" header collectors w/mandrel bent 2.5" cross into a 3" cat-back (MAG) and picked up 6 seconds 0-80. I didn't dyno, but definitely noticed the improved performance. I have before and after vids on line as well.

 

I sure do know the truck, and owner from the L boards. Blue, right?

30RWHP gain is a good bit, but is very hard to claim it was all from the LTs. Outside Temp, Engine Temp, Humidity, Etc.

Listen, every once in a while a thread like this pops up and I'm basically the only one that's says don't do LTs if your N/A. They do gain, and is a great mod that you can grow into, but for the price of a GOOD set vs the gain isn't worth it to me. Search on the L boards, they feel the same way, me being from the L world I guess has me brain washed into my thinking.

Wayne

 

I gained around 15hp, but that is an estimate since i did a few other changes before hitting the dyno

 

The biggest thing I notice in my setup was how it shifted the powerband around slightly.. No a huge increase in power but the drivability was better. Now if I could find time to build a engine to replace the one thats slowly dieing.

 

Thanks guys. I think I'll just hold off for now. Didn't know they shorties were such a rip off haha.