Alright, lets see if i can help. There are a coupple full lenth headers for sale that are good and some have thier pros and cons. I personally bought
BBK ceramic coated and thier o/r H and i am very happy. The only problem with the BBK is that if you ever need to remove your transmission (like to replace a clutch, or just to put in a better transmission) then you will have to remove the pass. side header. If you do the install of the headers yourself you will realize why that is a big pain in the ass. That brings me to a new question, do you think you could do the install yourself? How much mechanical experience do you have (its not hard, more time consuming and patience)?
As far as other companies, i would go to 4.6L Talk and do a search. I am not going to bash any other companies because i have personally not tried them. But find out what headers you want and for what reasons, like if you know you are going to be replaceing your clutch alot, then the BBKs MIGHT not be the best ones to get. If i remember correctly the Hookers alow you to remove your transmission without tampering with the headers. When you get LTs you will have to get a new (smaller) midpipe as well. If you want you could possibly sell it and use it to offset the cost.
O/R vs Catted and H vs X- when you do a search for headers you should also find out some information for this as well but... with the o/r H you should get a deeper more gurgly sound and with the o/r X it will be a little more raspy BUT they say there is more power to be made from the X. They do make mil-eliminators and i actually have them on my car. I have not gone though inspection but there have been plenty of people who have and passed. I think you should be more worried about the noise, i know my DMV up in Delaware is pretty stricked on noise. Another note about the X pipe, i have been told it sounds better with a straight flow muffler like the borlas. If you have a chambered exhaust (like many of the
flowmaster exhausts) then the H is recommended. I am going to be changing out my o/r H for a catted X.
Yes i used my existing
borla catback, but i am thinking about welding in a new
borla mufler (one that flows better) because i want to go with the 2.2L Kenne Bell blower (the blower that the cobra uses able to go 20+ psi).
A final note, with my exact setup, my car is pretty quite untill 2,500 rpm (exactly) and then it just rips. So it is possible to put around and nobody be any wiser. They will just here this deep rumble untill i floor it and i have seen people jump in thier seat. Let the headers break in for about a month. Your exuast my sound real tinny and raspy at first. My friends said it sounded like twin machine guns fireing out the back of my car when i floored it. It will mellow down and get a little deeper after about a month of driving it around.
I think i have hit everything, any more questions dont hesitate to ask.
-Mike
