I know, I wish I had 550 to blow

 

You can get away on a stock engine without a custom tune for headers as long as your A/F ratio remains the same. What the long tubes do is increase the exhaust flow out of the engine so it can effect the ratios. It is always better to talk to your tuner when you upgrade engine parts.

 

Haha ****s gettin pricier by the minute

 

Stock manifolds are fine for a completely stock system. It's a modular ford forum myth that shorties don't help over stock though. Modulars are never going to be Hp monsters NA but when dealing with the NA Hp percentages, shorties are just as viable an option as other mods. Where the myth starts is with people spending other peoples money. $2-500 for shorties or $300-1000 for LT's.

If you're replacing your factory manifolds because of damage, shorties are a reasonable replacement for the money. If you can't or wont spend the top dollar for "quality" LT's then shorties are still a good option. Remember it may not be the just the cost of the LT's but the install, the quality mid-pipe and the Catalytic Converters if you have to have them.

Shorties are best for a bit more low end tq where a quality LT will come on a bit later in the RPM's and give you more Hp/Tq overall.

Mind you all we're talking about here is 8-15hp. It's the heads and valve angle that's the problem here. The biggest feeling you're going to feel through an Auto trans is throttle response and Tq.

 

My fear with shorties is buying a good priced set, an then they crack..
Wuts a good material to use that won't break me financially

 

Stainless Steel will last the longest, in terms of rust. Now as the motor mounts age they become sloppy and allow the engine to rock. This rocking motion puts a load on the header at the collector. Being that the metal is thin because it is tubing it will eventually crack. The Cast manifolds eventually crack. My shorties lasted about 5 years then I had to have the collector welded. That lasted another 3-4 years then I replaced them with long tubes. I would still buy shorties over cast manifolds. The collector is 2½ inches but if you look at the exhaust pipe between the collector flange and the cat right where it bends down you will notice that it goes down to 2¼ inch. So unless you replace this part any collector larger than 2½ dia is a waste.

 

I have only had one set of headers not have rust in under a year and those were a $1500 set of custom kooks.

As a generic term, "stainless" is what you're looking for. Remember though stainless to one brand of steal will not be the same for another. The higher in price you go, you usually have better material, design & welds.

I've used Summit, Pacesetter, Mac, BBK, Kooks, Hedman, OBX etc.. all with good luck. You may have more fitment issues with the cheaper one but overall the quality is usually acceptable. Anyone that says "They wont last a year" doesn't know their head from a hole in the ground. The only reason why they wouldn't last is from poor QC during assembly or a somehow jacked up install.

If you have to go cheap w/ painted headers, it wont be the end of the world to use a set of summit/pacesetters. When you're installing them though be very mindful of oils on your hands & tools. Oil on the paint can create hot spots which will peel & bubble the paint exposing the metal. Life expectancy with them with quality gaskets & fasteners should be 3-5 years. Probably longer if you're not in a high salt area.

I've seen people take painted header and put them in their oven to get them up to temp before installing them. Then prep & re-paint with ceramic hi-temp header paint. If I had to do it, that's what I'd do. A little extra prep can go a long way.

No matter what: After installing headers, start it up and let it get to operating temp and let the paint cure. Then letting it cool off completely. Then repeat.


I'm not encouraging going with a cheap header over an expensive one, just that their not the end of the world if that's the mod you have to go with. There's no way in the world a stock manifold will ever go back on one of my vehicles if the old ones (or heads) had to come off.

 

Well sexynrd and JMC, with all that being said..

http://m.summitracing.com/parts/sum-g9046 are theses a good investment? Or one of the better? It says they're 16gauge steel and the flanges are 3/8" thick..
Also it says they're not tuned?

 

Looks good to me. Tuned means that they spent hours adjusting the length of the primaries and collector to maximize the power output. Kind of a waste of time on unequal length headers. I would invest im a can of black BBQ paint. When time comes you spray the bare metal and keep them looking nice.

 

I was thinking maybe even that oven and then ceramic paint prep mentioned before. I'm excited to do it but scared to spend the money and even more scared to break studs