2018+ Headers or Cat Delete?

[RonaldoM03]

I have a 2023 GT and my tuner has a really aggressive tune for mustangs anyhow, he says to go with long tube headers but I’ve also been told by a lot of people that 2018+ mustangs have good headers already and that doing a cat delete is cheaper. My question is, will doing a cat delete give me the same amount of power as aftermarket headers or will the headers give me more power? I assume the headers would give more considering it’s all about airflow but still im not a pro so I wanted some more opinions, thanks.

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[Wolfys11]

Stock headers perform well, cat deletes will give almost as much power as headers would. But long tubes also have different characteristics than short tube headers (stock) where it will lose a little bit of low end torque but give you a little more hp up top rpms. Headers would be worth the money in most cases, but if your on a tight budget, just going catless wont hurt hp figures much compared to longtubes

 

[K4fxd]

But long tubes also have different characteristics than short tube headers (stock) where it will lose a little bit of low end torque but give you a little more hp up top rpms.

Where does this come from? Misinformation from the EPA?

The only time long tube headers will hurt torque is if they are grossly oversized. Like 2 inch primary's on a 150 HP engine.

Headers will give a bump throughout the RPM range, area under the curve, but it will not be much over the stock manifold and no cats.

If you want every last bit of power, go long tubes. If you are OK giving up 5 or 10 HP go catless.

 

[NGOT8R]

If you will be going boosted at some point, or running a WOT Box (2 step), consider going catless to prevent the risk of blowing out or melting down the cats. I‘m going through this issue now. Looking back on it now, I believe the problem had existed for a while and was continually worsening over time until it finally reared its ugly head last week.

 

[RonaldoM03]

Where does this come from? Misinformation from the EPA?

The only time long tube headers will hurt torque is if they are grossly oversized. Like 2 inch primary's on a 150 HP engine.

Headers will give a bump throughout the RPM range, area under the curve, but it will not be much over the stock manifold and no cats.

If you want every last bit of power, go long tubes. If you are OK giving up 5 or 10 HP go catless.

Thank you

 

[Wolfys11]

Where does this come from? Misinformation from the EPA?

The only time long tube headers will hurt torque is if they are grossly oversized. Like 2 inch primary's on a 150 HP engine.

Headers will give a bump throughout the RPM range, area under the curve, but it will not be much over the stock manifold and no cats.

If you want every last bit of power, go long tubes. If you are OK giving up 5 or 10 HP go catless.

Really depends on specifics, but in general from what I hear and have seen on dynos, aftermarket shortys do have more torque in the lowend than longtubes do, of course minimal numbers, but its kind of like intake plenums, the height of the plenum creates more torque, good example of this is truck coyotes vs mustang coyotes plenums, as well as h pipe vs x pipe vs two seperate pipes. It is minimal, but the design does change the hp and torque a little bit.

 

[K4fxd]

Really depends on specifics,

I've been racing cars since I was 12 years old. I've been involved in testing almost from the same age. NEVER have I seen LT's produce less torque than shorties when properly sized.

Search out dyno graphs for the coyote and you will see the same results LT"s produce more torque than the stock headers.

 

[WildHorse]

Dunno why some refer to it as 'stock manifolds'.. Technically they're Tri-Y headers.

 

[K4fxd]

Technically they're Tri-Y headers.

Ford engineers did a good job getting the stock headers past the bean counters.

I'd love to have the time to build an 8 into one header. Sould sound like the formula one car's when they ran V8's.

 

[Wolfys11]

I've been racing cars since I was 12 years old. I've been involved in testing almost from the same age. NEVER have I seen LT's produce less torque than shorties when properly sized.

Search out dyno graphs for the coyote and you will see the same results LT"s produce more torque than the stock headers.

I believe you, im just giving what Ive seen, im just someone who does alot of research, ive never really been testing it to that degree. However, from what ive seen broadcasted by companies dynos, which of course may be skewed, their info shows aftermarket shorties giving a slightly better low end torque vs long tubes. Now, im sure on stock “shorties” which are not true shorties, the longtubes win low end as well. However, gen 3 coyotes have superb stock exhaust headers, were talking about a few less hp than longtubes vs stock headers, in a non boosted setup. Boosted of course longtubes shine.

i will say this though, if you go longtubes, go kooks. They truly have one of the best fitment for keeping a/c and not hitting anything!

 

[Wolfys11]

Dunno why some refer to it as 'stock manifolds'.. Technically they're Tri-Y headers.

Technically theyre also the stock header manifolds too haha but I never really heard of tri y headers, probably as well as most of us on here. Very cool info though!

 

[WildHorse]

Ford engineers did a good job getting the stock headers past the bean counters.

Yes sir.

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