I have a 99 F150 4X4 with the 4.6 and its my daily driver. The exhaust manifolds are rusted so they need replacing. Should I go with shorty headers or go back to stock manifolds? I would love more power but the only headers im able to afford right now are SUMMIT HEADERS $199.95 in price. I live in upstate New York. With all the salt im afraid they will rust out way to fast. If I go with stock manifolds then I dont have to worry about rust for a long time. I wont have the power increase but maybe I can make up for that somewhere else.

What should I do?

 

how much are stock manifolds? i would put some shorty headers on it..and spray them off through out the winters

 

Stock manifold each side is about $100.00. I only looked on SUMMIT though. Proly cheaper on ebay.

 

you should be able to get pacesetter or summit shorties, or even other cheap brands. You can get them armor/ceramic coated for rust prevention. shorties wont give you much of any power increase, just a mild exhaust tone increase.

 

I got stainless shorties for $300. IIRC stock manis are around the same price, that's why I went the stainless route.

 

I would only replace them with a set of LT's. The only draw back is that they're a pain in the *** to install, and you have to rework your exhaust.

 

ya dont do shorties, you will waste your money.

dont worry about the rust either. unless its rusting all the way through and i highly doubt that. look at most 4.6/5.4's out there and the exhaust manifold is rusted. i know mine is.

best thing for performance/sound would be to slap on some long tubes, and from there do a nice exhaust system... flowmaster, magnaflow, borla...w y/h pipe.

 

Guys he said he cant spend more than $200.00. I dont know of any longtube headers that are that price, unless you do. Shorties will at least give him a TAD gain along with a little volume change, over OEM. If OP cant find shorties that are Armor coated for $200, then OEM might be your only option. Or like said above, you can spray them off throughout the winters. There not hard to get on and off.

 

I would save up then. I wouldn't pay $200 for OEM anything.

 

I could wait but that noise is driving me INSANE lol. On a cold start its loud. then about 10 miles down the road the carbon builds up and plugs the leaks.

Washing non stainless shorties off in the winter is not a big deal so maybe ill go that route.

 

i spent hours b4 finding my stainless for a reasonable price, do some searching. my p/n was M-9430-P46 for the ford stainless

 

if i were you i would just get shorty headers and wash them off every so often during the salty winters

 

I think i'll go with these headers.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Summi...item563bf7a8fc

 

Mild steel headers also rust from the inside. Washing them often won't do squat. The salt mist cooks on the hot header and they rust. Try e-bay. Very close to your budget. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1997-...Q5fAccessories


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also if you get a set of the headers like JMC pointed out, you can POR-15 them with the high temp exhaust coating inside and out yourself to help them last a lil' longer