Long headers vs Shorty headers

I was at JPC today and talked to one of the mechanic guys ( they are moving ) anyway about long tube Headers - I asked if Long headers are legal in Maryland and he said Yes as long as the emmissions at the tailpipe are acceptable. My car is lowered in the front - but I don't know if it is so low that it would not fit on a lift..... as recommended in another thread

He also said there was a company that made a mid-length header that could be a second choice;

But also said that Short headers were useless - if I am trying to get HP.

What have you experienced at the Emmissions places?

if your emissions are clean coming out the tailpipe you will be ok. if you want to be on the safe side get a catted midpipe along with the headers. shorty headers dont do much vs long tubes. however shortys make life easier to work around and some shops will charge you more for labor if you need any work that involves the longtubes to be moved or taken off, like if you were doing any trans/clutch work

i think i am going to get LT's, and have a shop fabricate my old catted H pipe to fit the LT's when emissions come around

Longtube headers do creat more power and torque. The reason why is the scavenging effect. Shorts are nice, And if you wrap them in the header wrap you can see some really nice power gains. For LT you got to redo most of the exoust system.

I would say long tubes with a catted mid pipe to be able to pass inspection. Although, I thought if you buy the car new then you don't have to go through emissions testing unless the police stop you for it, I could be wrong though.

RTW0223 wrote:i think i am going to get LT's, and have a shop fabricate my old catted H pipe to fit the LT's when emissions come around

idk what kind of hook ups you may have with any shops but getting a catted midpipe for longtubes and just bolt it in may be a cheaper route and will make your life easier

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. . .

To be 100% accurate, MD law states that anything other than an OEM catlytic converter is illegal; however, as long as you have cats in the exhaust system, you'll most likely pass. With modern vehichles, the sniffer test is not used; rather, they plug into the OBD II port and scan the ECM for any illegal activity like having your O2 sensorrs turned off. They also use the readings from the sensors to measure your NOx, COx, SOx levels.

Shorty headers can be helpful to get some torque;however, the gains are minimal yet the install is just as much of a pain in the ass. Long tubes are the way to go. And, trust me, there are planty of lowered 'stangs with LT's that aren't having issues with bottoming out

yeah im scared im going to put in my LT's then have tyoubles passing emissions

After adding BBK shorty headers and Bassani catted x pipes, I gained 7hp. Emissions passed fine with the OBD port scan (no sniffer in MD).

I replaced these with JBA longtube headers and offroad/h pipe. I gained about 16hp and passed emissions fine with the OBD port scan.

There isn't much room on the S197s, and the shorties or longtubes are equally pains in the butts. Allow 6 hours or so. On my car, adding longtubes was much easier as the k-member was getting swapped out at the same time...

yeah but you deal with ecu tests i deal with big hoses getting shoved up my pipes lol

uh, ouch...

05RedDevil wrote:
Long tubes are the way to go. And, trust me, there are planty of lowered 'stangs with LT's that aren't having issues with bottoming out

If you're going to go through it, with the S197, LTs are the way to go.
Even after swapping out springs, mine still scrapes an awful lot on speed bumps Anywhere else, it's ok most of the time.

yeah. i gotta go over speed bumps at a hard angle cause of my lowering springs