Headers

[Sonic Blue GT]

I have a 2006 Mustang GT convertible. My current exhaust setup is stock with exception of Corsa X-pipe and Corsa axle-backs. I want to retain the use of my stock catalytic converters.

Given the above, what are some brands of headers I should be looking into for a 2006 Mustang GT? I want to increase both HP and torque. What header length should I go with?

 

[LIGHTNING LARRY]

MOVED!:wf: :bash: :wf:

USE THE CORRECT FORUMS!

 

[swoosh_stang]

I have a 2006 Mustang GT convertible. My current exhaust setup is stock with exception of Corsa X-pipe and Corsa axle-backs. I want to retain the use of my stock catalytic converters.

Given the above, what are some brands of headers I should be looking into for a 2006 Mustang GT? I want to increase both HP and torque. What header length should I go with?

In order to keep the stock cats, you will have to use shorty headers.

I know that JBA, BBK, Ford Racing and I'm sure if you look around there are more.

 

[Sonic Blue GT]

In order to keep the stock cats, you will have to use shorty headers.

I know that JBA, BBK, Ford Racing and I'm sure if you look around there are more.

With the shorties will I more apt to loose torque or gain torque but less so than mids or long tubes?

 

[42RCODE]

With the shorties will I more apt to loose torque or gain torque but less so than mids or long tubes?

No,
but the gains are very minimum. I would keep your stock manifolds as they do flow good. I would recomend long tubes with an H-pipe w/cats. JBA, Basanni, BBK all make that set up. If you are firm on keeping your stock cats you will need to go with a shortie header as reccomened but not worth the expense for very little gains imo.

Fred :beer:

 

[Impact 5.0]

I would say go with the JBA Long tubes and a High flow X or H pipe, I have scene up close how well the JBA's look, they tuck right up against your frame so there is no worry about hanging low and scraping.

 

[Sonic Blue GT]

No,
but the gains are very minimum. I would keep your stock manifolds as they do flow good. I would recomend long tubes with an H-pipe w/cats. JBA, Basanni, BBK all make that set up. If you are firm on keeping your stock cats you will need to go with a shortie header as reccomened but not worth the expense for very little gains imo.

Fred :beer:

Well I decided to go with the Ford Racing shorties.... I have too much invested in the CORSA X-Pipe and CORSA axlebacks to go with long-tubes and then have to buy the remaining exhaust kit as well because long-tubes don't match up to the stock cats. So we will see what actual gains I make. I will report back what I make beyond what I have posted in my Sig.

Hopefully I will get at least 3 HP...that will put me just over the 300 RWHP mark...which is what these cars should have been making off the production line....That's the one thing that pisses me off about Ford....most folks don't know that when Ford reports HP its always at the flywheel. When people see my dyno-sheet they always ask why it doesn't make 300 as Ford claims? Even I ask that though I was aware of it when I bought the car.

I read in a book (S. Hyland?) about Ford 4.6 liter modular engines that the shorties usually make 3 to 5 RWHP with the stock H-pipe and a little more with x-pipe. I have an X-pipe so here is hoping. 8 would kinda make me feel the cost was worth it. It also stated that the primary reason shorties make power is because the exhaust is able to get out of the engine quicker and therefore the heat doesn't have a chance to backflow into the cylinders. Also with headers it takes much less time for the cats to light-off than if the stock manifold was on it. Both of these factors considered the header allow the engine to run cooler and therefore parasitic power drain due to heat is considerably diminished.

The book went onto explain the reason that long-tubes make considerable power and torque. It sounded to me as if the extra header length sort of acts like an after-burner to give a chance for any unburned fuel to burn up....that's my interpratation of what I read.

If nothing else at least the shorties will probably sound a little smoother and deeper and probably a small bit louder at WOT and at idle.

 

[Sonic Blue GT]

Update on shortie Headers install - OK the Ford Racing ceramic shortie headers were installed today. First off the Ford Racing ceramic headers looked quite nice to my surprise. The ceramic coatings are put on by Jet-Hot and they were well polished up. The header design itself was high quality with no weld flash and the inside surface area was smooth.

The install took 6 hours. The stock gaskets coming off the stock manifolds was reused. The headers were locked in using Stage 8 locking bolts. The stock manifolds took about one hour a piece to get out. Entry to each stock manifold was gained from both below the car going through areas around the K-member and through the engine bay from the top. It was not necessary to remove the K-member.

It took about one hour per header to get them into location and bolted into place. The remaining two hours were spent putting the Stage 8 clips on. Most of the clipping was done by feel, not by sight.

The tuning was an interesting result. I made no additional gains in HP or torque over my last tune (see signature for numbers) however the same HP and torque numbers were achieved by removing one degree of timing advance and by adjusted down A/F from the previous tune's 13.2 to now being 13.0. Whereas the previous tune's A/F would show a slight up/down waive along the horizontal axis of 13.2, this new tune had the A/F ratio line being held as a steady flat line across the 13.0 graph line.

My highway gas mileage (82 mile trip) went from 23.8 MPG average (measured through the ECU) to 25.5 MPG. The sound of the exhaust went from being previous semi-loud and popping to smooth and even with no popping. In fact it really sound like a high quality race engine sound much to my surprise.

Of interesting note was that it appears from the MAF numbers recorded during the dyno that the MAF air intake diameter may be causing a restriction for the MAF graph line flattens out in the upper RPMS levels instead of the usual steady inclination.

I am going to replace the BBK CAI pipe that is stock diameter at the MAF end with a MAF that is 90mm. Reading materials suggest that upgrading the MAF diameter mitigates the MAF restriction. So next mod will be a larger MAF.

Though I did not make any more gains nor experience any loss in HP/TQ with this shortie header install, I am happy that I was able to make the same power numbers with less timing, a better A/F ratio, a 1.7 MPG gain in fuel use and get a smoother high quality exhaust note.

 

[42RCODE]

Update on shortie Headers install - OK the Ford Racing ceramic shortie headers were installed today. First off the Ford Racing ceramic headers looked quite nice to my surprise. The ceramic coatings are put on by Jet-Hot and they were well polished up. The header design itself was high quality with no weld flash and the inside surface area was smooth.

The install took 6 hours. The stock gaskets coming off the stock manifolds was reused. The headers were locked in using Stage 8 locking bolts. The stock manifolds took about one hour a piece to get out. Entry to each stock manifold was gained from both below the car going through areas around the K-member and through the engine bay from the top. It was not necessary to remove the K-member.

It took about one hour per header to get them into location and bolted into place. The remaining two hours were spent putting the Stage 8 clips on. Most of the clipping was done by feel, not by sight.

The tuning was an interesting result. I made no additional gains in HP or torque over my last tune (see signature for numbers) however the same HP and torque numbers were achieved by removing one degree of timing advance and by adjusted down A/F from the previous tune's 13.2 to now being 13.0. Whereas the previous tune's A/F would show a slight up/down waive along the horizontal axis of 13.2, this new tune had the A/F ratio line being held as a steady flat line across the 13.0 graph line.

My highway gas mileage (82 mile trip) went from 23.8 MPG average (measured through the ECU) to 25.5 MPG. The sound of the exhaust went from being previous semi-loud and popping to smooth and even with no popping. In fact it really sound like a high quality race engine sound much to my surprise.

Of interesting note was that it appears from the MAF numbers recorded during the dyno that the MAF air intake diameter may be causing a restriction for the MAF graph line flattens out in the upper RPMS levels instead of the usual steady inclination.

I am going to replace the BBK CAI pipe that is stock diameter at the MAF end with a MAF that is 90mm. Reading materials suggest that upgrading the MAF diameter mitigates the MAF restriction. So next mod will be a larger MAF.

Though I did not make any more gains nor experience any loss in HP/TQ with this shortie header install, I am happy that I was able to make the same power numbers with less timing, a better A/F ratio, a 1.7 MPG gain in fuel use and get a smoother high quality exhaust note.

:thumbsup:
Fred :banana:

 

[Wild Stallion]

:thumbsup: I am putting on the JBA titanium coated shorties on mine that coupled with my MRT hi flow H-pipe and JBA axle back see how that goes but i also went this direction cause i already had the H-pipe and axle back and wanted something that flowed better and remained cooler cause i am not going to be n/a anymore and boost creates heat but more importantly power:burnout:

 

[Sonic Blue GT]

:thumbsup: I am putting on the JBA titanium coated shorties on mine that coupled with my MRT hi flow H-pipe and JBA axle back see how that goes but i also went this direction cause i already had the H-pipe and axle back and wanted something that flowed better and remained cooler cause i am not going to be n/a anymore and boost creates heat but more importantly power:burnout:

I just picked up a C&L CAI. I am going to sub this in for the BBK. The C&L has a humungous MAF intake diameter. Per reports I have read it can make upto 30 RWHP/TQ with a tune. That would be more than double what I made with the BBK CAI and a tune.

So this Saturday I am putting the C&L on at the tuning shop and going straight onto the dyno. Hopefully that will put me well into the 300's in RWHP and TQ.

I will report my dyno on Saturday.

 

[Sonic Blue GT]

I just picked up a C&L CAI. I am going to sub this in for the BBK. The C&L has a humungous MAF intake diameter. Per reports I have read it can make upto 30 RWHP/TQ with a tune. That would be more than double what I made with the BBK CAI and a tune.

So this Saturday I am putting the C&L on at the tuning shop and going straight onto the dyno. Hopefully that will put me well into the 300's in RWHP and TQ.

I will report my dyno on Saturday.

Well...............guess what.............the larger C&L MAF did NOT make any difference in HP or TQ. The numbers stayed identical yet again. That would seem to suggest that the stock cats must be the only remaining flow restriction left in the exhaust line.....everything else has been replaced except for the stock cat section.

If I were take the stock cats off and replace with pipe from the header collector to the Corsa x-pipe, would I pick up any power? Will it become excessively loud?

Opinions please..........


P.S. It wasn't all a loss because the Shaker RAM Air setup had to be modified to work with the C&L heat-shield. It turned out looking 100% better than the original way I had it set up. A proper fitting elbow pipe was fabricated from some extra pipe pieces laying around from someones turbo install. The elbow pipe replaced part of the CDC elbow that just didn't quite fit snug since it was made to really be used with the stock Mustang GT airbox. So now the connection from the Shaker pipe over into the airbox looks completely seemless and OEM factory-like.

 

[Wild Stallion]

Go to MRT direct order their hi flow catted H-pipe they have seen up to a 20hp gain with it. Have it on my car did feel a bump in power and adds a nice deep tone to the car.

 

[Sonic Blue GT]

Go to MRT direct order their hi flow catted H-pipe they have seen up to a 20hp gain with it. Have it on my car did feel a bump in power and adds a nice deep tone to the car.

Thanks for the suggestion Wild, I appreciate it.....but I would like to retain the investment I have in the Corsa X-pipe already on the car.....

 

[Wild Stallion]

:lol1: oops forgot about your x sorry. Hey just do what i did get whipple i think that should help get you over that 300rwhp mark just only slightly though right.:thumbsup:

 

[Sonic Blue GT]

:lol1: oops forgot about your x sorry. Hey just do what i did get whipple i think that should help get you over that 300rwhp mark just only slightly though right.:thumbsup:

A blower is on my agenda probably later in the year or early next year. :beer: :beer:

I imagine that if it was 30 degrees outside (been 45 to 57 lately) I would probably pick up the 3 HP I need to get over 300 to the rear wheels. It just has to be those stupid cats. Torque is doing fine....always up around 316.

Would taking the cats off cause it to become excessively loud?

 

[redfire03 svt]

yes, it will be much louder and not as smooth. I am catless and love it.

 

[swoosh_stang]

Well...............guess what.............the larger C&L MAF did NOT make any difference in HP or TQ. The numbers stayed identical yet again. That would seem to suggest that the stock cats must be the only remaining flow restriction left in the exhaust line.....everything else has been replaced except for the stock cat section.

If I were take the stock cats off and replace with pipe from the header collector to the Corsa x-pipe, would I pick up any power? Will it become excessively loud?

Opinions please..........


P.S. It wasn't all a loss because the Shaker RAM Air setup had to be modified to work with the C&L heat-shield. It turned out looking 100% better than the original way I had it set up. A proper fitting elbow pipe was fabricated from some extra pipe pieces laying around from someones turbo install. The elbow pipe replaced part of the CDC elbow that just didn't quite fit snug since it was made to really be used with the stock Mustang GT airbox. So now the connection from the Shaker pipe over into the airbox looks completely seemless and OEM factory-like.

Bro I hate to tell you this, because I'm sure that you love the shaker, but it is probably the pipe runing from the shaker scoop to your air box that is your inlet restriction.

I know several people that put the CDC shaker scoop on and actually lost power over stock. You may see an improvement in 60-100 mph times, because it is ramming the air in there, but on a dyno, with the air not being forced in, it is hurting you.

ps, you will see a very nice jump in power by ditching the cats, but it will get much louder.

 

[redfire03 svt]

My Series 1 GT has a Shaker Hood, and with the only power mods been that, offroad x, magnflow catback and tune put down 300rwhp and that is with 4:30's. I still have the stock air filter in place so I highly doubt the shaker is the issue.

 

[Silver02TA]

this is off-topic, but I was unaware of such thing as a 'sonic blue 2006 mustang gt' ?

i thought 2005 was the last year of sonic blue before it became vista blue in 2006?