I am toying with putting on some headers on my truck, but am not sure how this will affect my ability to tow heavy.

Will headers kill my low end torque?

Does anyone have any experience on how headers affect towing performance? If you do, what did you buy? (shorties, long tubes)

 

Before headers,



after headers

 

I'm no expert at reading dynos but it looks to me that I gained HP and Torque throughout the RMP ranges.

He's my install thread if you want to see it.

my obx header install

 

Not sure if I am reading this accurately. Tell me if I am wrong.

With headers, your biggest torque & HP increase is in the low / mid range and leveled off on the top end.

I thought that it would have been the other way around.

Do you have shorties or long tubes?

 

That's the way it looks to me also. It basicaly just flattened everything out and gave me a little increase throughout.

I have OXB longtubes.

From what I hear, shorties don't do anything but make these trucks sound better.

 

Thank you for the great information on the longtubes!

I'm curious if anyone used shorty or longtube headers on a 2004 - 2008 5.4 V8?

 

That's great to see the dyno charts for back to back comparison!

The gains look pretty small considering the expense in going with long tubes.

FWIW, the charts don't tell you anything about the power below 2,500 rpm. Could you feel any change in power below 2,500?

 

If you look close the torque and HP is lower with the headers below 3500RPM.

I don't know about you, but when I am trying to pull a stationary load from the start, I want as much torque as possible at low, not high RPM.

 

I'm sure the increase would have been better if I had a custom tune for them.

To be honest with you, I can't really feel a difference anywhere in the RPM range.

 

It's almost impossible to test engine power on a chassis dyno for automatic transmissions at low engine speeds. Since most truck owners want more torque under 3000rpm, changing gears is usually the most cost effective solution to improving acceleration at any engine speed at every accelerator position in any gear. Expect $1200-1500 installed for a 4wd truck, though.

 

Yea the 4:88's made a HUGE difference!