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Got an opportunity to do a nice side by side comparison of a couple of the more popular headers last night.
We did a before and after with the Stainless Works 2015 Mustang GT Headers in performance connect, and an ARH bottleneck system. We had also planned on doing a Kooks system as well and they were def up for it, but with time constraints with getting ready for nmra next week, we knew we’d only have time to do too.
First, we have a lot of classes we have competed in the NMRA series over the last few years. Coyote Modified, Coyote Stock, Pure Street, Factory Stock, Super Stang.
We have tried and used all 3 brands, and have always been happy with all of them. We sell and install all 3 brands, and have never had issues with any of them as far as fitment and quality. All are USA made and have lifetime warranties.
Onto the 2 we tested last night.
Visually both are very good quality, great welds.
In the Box – Stainless Works
The Stainless works comes with the Headers, bolts, and extensions (they didn’t originally, but now they do as fitment on the 15 is different than previous coyotes where they weren’t needed.
On the auto car, we did not need extensions, there was enough room for the 02’s to fit.
The SW does not come with a mid pipe, they have 2 versions, a factory connect which meats at the 2 bolt connection clamp, and a performance connect, which will bolt a full 3” to their catback. These could be made to work with most catbacks into a full 3”, but would take fabrication.
The stainless works price point for headers alone is less expensive, but they do not come with a mid pipe like the ARH does. If your doing a catback this doesn’t matter, but if you are only planning on axle backs / stock mufflers, this might be something to consider.
In the Box – ARH
The ARH headers come with the Headers, bolts, extensions, and also a small bracket to keep the a/c line away from the headers. This is actually a nice little bracket. When removing the SW headers that were installed a few weeks back, we noticed some black coating from the wrap around on the a/c line burnt onto the headers. This bracket will prevent that in the ARH system. – We liked that.
02 Extensions were needed on the driver side on the auto car.
The ARH comes in 2 configurations, they have a full system that is their headers and their exhaust. Their non exhaust system, which they call the bottle neck eliminator comes with the headers, but they also come with your choice of an X or H pipe as well that eliminates the factor “big can”, that everyone dislikes.
The ARH price point is higher than the SW, but as mentioned, if you are only planning on doing axle backs or keeping the stock system, this could be an important decision, as most want to delete that resonator. If your doing a full catback, you may be paying for an x or h twice, so this might be something to consider.
Installation
Both systems are easier to get on and off compared to previous year coyotes, since you don’t have a big k member in your way.
With a 2 man team, we were able to get the SW system on when we did it probably 20-30 minutes quicker. The SW system went on and off using all the factory studs. We did have to remove 3 studs on the passenger side and reinstall to get the headers on and off.
With the ARH we did need to use bolts in some of the holes due to the configuration of the system. Nothing wrong with this at all, but some of the positioning was a little tougher to get to for tightenging. Nothing that would change a decision on either system.
On the SW, the tougher side is the passenger side.
On the ARH, the tougher side is the driver side.
This is mainly due to how each system routes the tubes. It was interesting to see them side by side and see that each mfg chose a different position for their tubes into the collector. Meaning that if you look into the collector, where one may have had cylinder 5 at the top left, the other may have been top right. That really made us curious on the power aspect of things. Why the difference we wondered?
The ARH headers themselves are the longest, while the SW are slightly shorter to the collector. (for note, the kooks will be the shortest as technically they are more mid length, but we’ve never had an issue making power that said.)
For comparison on the dyno, we unbolted the cat back and left the SW H pipe on as we wanted it to be a fair comparison. We thought we had an H pipe ARH system as well, so we thought that would be a perfect comparison. We ended up with an X pipe ARH system, in our experience an x is worth 2 or 3 over an h, but nothing crazy, so we were still fine with it. We probably would have unbolted before the midpipe, but no biggie as again, only a couple.
As far as the dyno numbers, our auto car has no jlt with plans for the blower going on starting today. The SW system was already in place so we made a couple runs to get the car up to temp and then made 2 pulls. The auto is a little tricky rolling and and keeping the converter locked. The 2nd pull on the SW it didn’t lock til late in the pull.
We did the swap and was back on the dyno 4 hours later. I don’t think you’ll get a better comparison than that. As far as the low rpm, don’t get too hung up as again, we were rolling into the converter. You’ll see one very solid locked pull on each, one where the arh was a little later, and one where the sw was towards the end.
Anyway, here are the results.!!
Looks like on a side by side, both systems perform very well.
Both are great quality, both seem to make very similar power, and both are a great choice.
I think the biggest determining factor for choosing a system, is going to come down to the mid pipe / resonator delete as we mentioned in the comments above.
Thanks to Nick and the guys at ARH for a great quality product and the same to George and the crew at SW. We had a couple extra guys hanging around very anxious to see the numbers on the pulls!!!
We did a before and after with the Stainless Works 2015 Mustang GT Headers in performance connect, and an ARH bottleneck system. We had also planned on doing a Kooks system as well and they were def up for it, but with time constraints with getting ready for nmra next week, we knew we’d only have time to do too.
First, we have a lot of classes we have competed in the NMRA series over the last few years. Coyote Modified, Coyote Stock, Pure Street, Factory Stock, Super Stang.
We have tried and used all 3 brands, and have always been happy with all of them. We sell and install all 3 brands, and have never had issues with any of them as far as fitment and quality. All are USA made and have lifetime warranties.
Onto the 2 we tested last night.
Visually both are very good quality, great welds.
In the Box – Stainless Works
The Stainless works comes with the Headers, bolts, and extensions (they didn’t originally, but now they do as fitment on the 15 is different than previous coyotes where they weren’t needed.
On the auto car, we did not need extensions, there was enough room for the 02’s to fit.
The SW does not come with a mid pipe, they have 2 versions, a factory connect which meats at the 2 bolt connection clamp, and a performance connect, which will bolt a full 3” to their catback. These could be made to work with most catbacks into a full 3”, but would take fabrication.
The stainless works price point for headers alone is less expensive, but they do not come with a mid pipe like the ARH does. If your doing a catback this doesn’t matter, but if you are only planning on axle backs / stock mufflers, this might be something to consider.
In the Box – ARH
The ARH headers come with the Headers, bolts, extensions, and also a small bracket to keep the a/c line away from the headers. This is actually a nice little bracket. When removing the SW headers that were installed a few weeks back, we noticed some black coating from the wrap around on the a/c line burnt onto the headers. This bracket will prevent that in the ARH system. – We liked that.
02 Extensions were needed on the driver side on the auto car.
The ARH comes in 2 configurations, they have a full system that is their headers and their exhaust. Their non exhaust system, which they call the bottle neck eliminator comes with the headers, but they also come with your choice of an X or H pipe as well that eliminates the factor “big can”, that everyone dislikes.
The ARH price point is higher than the SW, but as mentioned, if you are only planning on doing axle backs or keeping the stock system, this could be an important decision, as most want to delete that resonator. If your doing a full catback, you may be paying for an x or h twice, so this might be something to consider.
Installation
Both systems are easier to get on and off compared to previous year coyotes, since you don’t have a big k member in your way.
With a 2 man team, we were able to get the SW system on when we did it probably 20-30 minutes quicker. The SW system went on and off using all the factory studs. We did have to remove 3 studs on the passenger side and reinstall to get the headers on and off.
With the ARH we did need to use bolts in some of the holes due to the configuration of the system. Nothing wrong with this at all, but some of the positioning was a little tougher to get to for tightenging. Nothing that would change a decision on either system.
On the SW, the tougher side is the passenger side.
On the ARH, the tougher side is the driver side.
This is mainly due to how each system routes the tubes. It was interesting to see them side by side and see that each mfg chose a different position for their tubes into the collector. Meaning that if you look into the collector, where one may have had cylinder 5 at the top left, the other may have been top right. That really made us curious on the power aspect of things. Why the difference we wondered?
The ARH headers themselves are the longest, while the SW are slightly shorter to the collector. (for note, the kooks will be the shortest as technically they are more mid length, but we’ve never had an issue making power that said.)
For comparison on the dyno, we unbolted the cat back and left the SW H pipe on as we wanted it to be a fair comparison. We thought we had an H pipe ARH system as well, so we thought that would be a perfect comparison. We ended up with an X pipe ARH system, in our experience an x is worth 2 or 3 over an h, but nothing crazy, so we were still fine with it. We probably would have unbolted before the midpipe, but no biggie as again, only a couple.
As far as the dyno numbers, our auto car has no jlt with plans for the blower going on starting today. The SW system was already in place so we made a couple runs to get the car up to temp and then made 2 pulls. The auto is a little tricky rolling and and keeping the converter locked. The 2nd pull on the SW it didn’t lock til late in the pull.
We did the swap and was back on the dyno 4 hours later. I don’t think you’ll get a better comparison than that. As far as the low rpm, don’t get too hung up as again, we were rolling into the converter. You’ll see one very solid locked pull on each, one where the arh was a little later, and one where the sw was towards the end.
Anyway, here are the results.!!
Looks like on a side by side, both systems perform very well.
Both are great quality, both seem to make very similar power, and both are a great choice.
I think the biggest determining factor for choosing a system, is going to come down to the mid pipe / resonator delete as we mentioned in the comments above.
Thanks to Nick and the guys at ARH for a great quality product and the same to George and the crew at SW. We had a couple extra guys hanging around very anxious to see the numbers on the pulls!!!
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