OEM headers 2020

[GregO]

That’s a good question. It’s mostly unnecessary enthusiasm if I’m honest. 500HP sounds like a nice round number. I’ve never had a “muscle car” before and I suppose I just have the fever for tweaking things. It’s enjoyable to learn about all this stuff, get my hands in it when it’s reasonable for a beginner to do so, feeling the difference in things as I do them.
I’m not planning on track days or drag strips so it’s all for hobby purposes at best.

Start with suspension mods. The power is there, the soft suspension / powder puff ride is soaking up all the power and not delivering it to the pavement.
Rear cradle lockout is a great start.
I have the GTPP and even that was setup by Ford for a Girl IMO.

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[PoCoBob]

I found this picture online which claims to be the stock 5.0 GT headers. I can see how LTH would flow better but the questions is do these flow good enough. My car has no problem hitting the redline with the stock manifolds so I think they're good enough for my driving style. That plus I've watched a couple video's about installing headers and that looks like a job I'd leave for someone else's car.

 

[Tecronix]

Start with suspension mods. The power is there, the soft suspension / powder puff ride is soaking up all the power and not delivering it to the pavement.
Rear cradle lockout is a great start.
I have the GTPP and even that was setup by Ford for a Girl IMO.

I’ve got the steeda stop the hop starter kit and the diff bushings on the way. Like everything else, it seems that is quite a deep rabbit hole.

 

[GregO]

I found this picture online which claims to be the stock 5.0 GT headers. I can see how LTH would flow better but the questions is do these flow good enough. My car has no problem hitting the redline with the stock manifolds so I think they're good enough for my driving style

To put this another way, ROUSH supercharges the 5.0 on OEM headers and they warranty the car meeting 50 state EPA requirements.

 

[GregO]

I’ve got the steeda stop the hop starter kit and the diff bushings on the way. Like everything else, it seems that is quite a deep rabbit hole.

YES it is.

 

[Dave2013M3]

Save your money. the days of banging, cursing, bleeding to get a set in and gaining 35-50 hp are long over.
15hp at power peak maybe. If you can find a set that is tuned to pull the exhaust gasses out of the cyl. (scavenging).
Engine bays tend to be too tight to fix headers that will do this well.
Some like the "ting" sound they have.
It isn't like it used to be where the oem's left a bunch of power on the table, choking the engine with log exhaust manifolds.
Look at the last 24-36 months of what the fed and epa have done to diesel guys, The pump gas/e85 market is next.
I'd skip any mods that screw with fed mandated emission controls, unless it is more a track car, and all out mods for every last hp.

I agree with this...except for the E85 fuel. E85 is being embraced in Cali. It burns cleaner and has less green house gasses. In fact in Cali we get true E85 from the pump. I'd like to hear why you think E85 will be the next shoe to fall, unless you are taking about E85 tunes. Which to be honest are already against the law as you are tuning the car without a CARB EO#.

 

[Tecronix]

I found this picture online which claims to be the stock 5.0 GT headers. I can see how LTH would flow better but the questions is do these flow good enough. My car has no problem hitting the redline with the stock manifolds so I think they're good enough for my driving style. That plus I've watched a couple video's about installing headers and that looks like a job I'd leave for someone else's car.

I’ve read some things about A/C lines and cutting studs and all kinds of headaches. I’m a machinist so I it’s not like I couldn’t make anything work but is it really worth it? In line with my original question, if the OE headers do the job with forced air how deficient can I possibly be with bolt ons.

 

[ICU812]

I agree with this...except for the E85 fuel. E85 is being embraced in Cali. It burns cleaner and has less green house gasses. In fact in Cali we get true E85 from the pump. I'd like to hear why you think E85 will be the next shoe to fall, unless you are taking about E85 tunes. Which to be honest are already against the law as you are tuning the car without a CARB EO#.

Your last part is why. Sure it burns cleaner when tuned for that, But so does a 2020 5.0 over a 1985 5.0, but installing a 2020 5.0 into a '85 fox body is illegal unless you install ALL of the 2020 donor cars emission crap in the wonderful state of Kali. The down side of people with no clue writing the laws/reg's.
So, any change to the mapping of the "tune" from stock will be in the crosshairs. e85 or pump gas it'll all fall under the same tampering blah blah,blah.

 

[Dave2013M3]

Your last part is why. Sure it burns cleaner when tuned for that, But so does a 2020 5.0 over a 1985 5.0, but installing a 2020 5.0 into a '85 fox body is illegal unless you install ALL of the 2020 donor cars emission crap in the wonderful state of Kali. The down side of people with no clue writing the laws/reg's.
So, any change to the mapping of the "tune" from stock will be in the crosshairs. e85 or pump gas it'll all fall under the same tampering blah blah,blah.

Thats what I thought you meant. An E85 tune is already illegal and I agree with you that will be the next shoe to drop. They went after the diesel market, next will be whats left of the tuning market. Getting a CARB E0# will be the only way tuners will be able to sell tunes. Livernois is already doing it and obviously Ford Racing.

 

[Dave2013M3]

Your last part is why. Sure it burns cleaner when tuned for that, But so does a 2020 5.0 over a 1985 5.0, but installing a 2020 5.0 into a '85 fox body is illegal unless you install ALL of the 2020 donor cars emission crap in the wonderful state of Kali. The down side of people with no clue writing the laws/reg's.
So, any change to the mapping of the "tune" from stock will be in the crosshairs. e85 or pump gas it'll all fall under the same tampering blah blah,blah.

I was considering a Cobra Kit car awhile back, this was the main reason it couldn't be done was smogging and registering the car in Kali.

 

[Superspirit]

I was considering a Cobra Kit car awhile back, this was the main reason it couldn't be done was smogging and registering the car in Kali.

Easy fix, bye bye Kali!

 

[Dave2013M3]

Easy fix, bye bye Kali!

Not so simple when you still have kids in school and all my book of business is here. I actually love where I live, but I am making plans to leave

 

[Andrew@Lethal]

Tech specs lists GT,GT350, and GT500 with a very general “tubular stainless steel headers”. Been trying to find the actual dimensions. I’ve read that they may be routed differently to avoid other components, but are the primary sizes different?

I’m no mechanic but I’m not really buying the school of thought that “you gotta get headers”. If the factory headers are equal or at least close between the GT, 350, or 500 I can’t see spending the money on aftermarket headers on my coyote when they can handle the flow of the voodoo or predator engine.

I appreciate anyone’s experience or insight. I’m too old to become a real mechanic at this point so I’m gonna rely on y’all.

Check out our 2 minute Tuesday video on headers here from www.lethalperformance.com!

 

[Genxer]

Headers made a tremendous difference back in the day when cars used to be equipped with a log-type exhaust manifold, usually heavy cast iron. The two things you got was big weight savings and much improved performance in the upper rpm range. Even modern manifolds can be improved up to some extent, but they are much better optimized than they used to be.

 

[Whitedevil95]

So you plan to throw your money away?

Literally what i read as i read his post.

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