I am looking at some nice shorties for a pretty good price. Assuming that I can get the Ford Racing unequal length headers (P/N M-9430-N95) for $365 to my door, or the JBA (P/N 1624S-4) shorties for $334 to my door, which is the better deal, and how much better of a seal is it? They are both stainless and supposedly the JBAs make great power but people really seem to like the Fords. Please let's not turn this into a "longtubes FTW" thread.
Cheap stainless headers
- Thread starter ctrout71
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I bought my ford SS headers back in 1999 and they tarnished a bit but they never warped, cracked, etc. I ran them until I switched to long tubes and then installed them on my old cobra which I just sold in March. I loved them but after seeing the torque gain from long tubes I would never run a shorty again. If you get the ford ones plan on grinding down the flange welds inside of the primaries to improve flow as there was a decent amount of overlap in mine, but that was a long time ago and they may have changed that since then.
On my 94GT alone I bought MAC Equal Length in chrome-discolored and chipped over time, MAC Long Tubes Coated-discolored and chipped over time, last set was MAC Long Tubes Ceramic Coated and OMG they were so nice it was ashame they would be hidden. They never discolored and coating was amazing. Stick with the JBA or quality brand shorties if that's what you want. the S.S. will discolor over time. Make sure they are ceramic coated. Don't expect huge gains from shorties though. Long tubes is where it's at.
Pictures below of my last set up. Pretty much over kill but this was on a 347 with AFR heads. I also has this set up in 1-5/8" Long Tubes with 2.5" Collector, 2.5" MAC Prochamber, 2.5" MAC Cat Back with the stock 302 with bolt on's (aluminum heads, cam, intake, etc.) and Vortech Supercharger.
MAC 1-3/4" Long Tubes Ceramic Coated w/ 3" Collector
MAC Prochamber-The sound is ridiculous, I also had this in 2.5" for shorty heads which sounded great.
MAC 3" Cat Back w/ Chrome 3" Tips-The sound was simply sick.
Pictures below of my last set up. Pretty much over kill but this was on a 347 with AFR heads. I also has this set up in 1-5/8" Long Tubes with 2.5" Collector, 2.5" MAC Prochamber, 2.5" MAC Cat Back with the stock 302 with bolt on's (aluminum heads, cam, intake, etc.) and Vortech Supercharger.
MAC 1-3/4" Long Tubes Ceramic Coated w/ 3" Collector
MAC Prochamber-The sound is ridiculous, I also had this in 2.5" for shorty heads which sounded great.
MAC 3" Cat Back w/ Chrome 3" Tips-The sound was simply sick.
