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Message: <blockquote data-quote="atlanticblue98" data-source="post: 666219" data-attributes="member: 11091">What are Long Tubes?Long Tube headers are just that. Headers that have long primary tubes. To be more specific, the primary tubes are the pipes that come directly off the engine before coming together in the exhaust pipes. Here is a picture of Mac long tubes.<img src="http://www.mustangwarehouse.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/TF3895.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Why do I need them?Well as you may already know, and if you don?t here ya go, the better your engine can breath the more horsepower you make. Its like a big air pump. The long tubes help your engine exhale better than stock headers. Most people don?t NEED long tubes until they have done all the basic bolt-on?s and even some mild engine work. A lot of people will use 300 hp as a benchmark to upgrade your headers. Stock headers on the V-6 flow very well for stockers, and replacing them on a nearly stock engine will not net a lot of power. Dyno?s have seen gains from 5-10 hp on stock engines and will show more gains with the more engine work that is done.How do they work?Here is the best way to explain it, this is in the exhaust sticky that has been written already by Justang.?Sound is nothing more than alternating high and low pressure waves. In an engine, when the exhaust valve is opened and the cylinder contents are expelled, there is a high-pressure wave introduced to the exhaust system. The high pressure moves at a nominal speed of 1300 to 1700 feet per second. At the same instant the wave of pressure is being expelled the exhaust gases are being pushed out as well. But the exhaust gases are being pushed out at a slower nominal speed of 150-300 feet per second. The shock wave, moving 5 times as fast as the exhaust gases, will pass the exhaust gases and when they hit the first low pressure area, most likely the collector of the header, the shockwave will reverse itself and start heading back toward the exhaust valve at almost the same speed as which it came. The reversed shock wave is called the reversion wave. The reversion wave will then pass through the slower exhaust gases head on, and both will continue in their respective directions. Now, two things can happen. One, the reversion wave will reach the exhaust valve when it is closed and simply bounce off the exhaust valve back toward the collector and it?s energy is simply dissipated in that valve to collector reverberation. Second the shock wave will reach the exhaust valve when it is open. Now two things can happen here depending on which part of the reversion wave hits the open exhaust valve first. If the high-pressure part of the wave (called the Node) hits the open exhaust valve the next exhaust pulse coming out of the combustion chamber will be inhibited and you will lose flow and thus horsepower. But, if the low pressure part of the wave (called the Anti-Node) reaches the open exhaust valve first it will actually help suck out the exhaust from the combustion chamber and subsequently help fill the combustion chamber with fresh air and fuel. This results in added horsepower. What has just been described is resonating frequency. This is what you would call a ?tuned? exhaust system. You can obviously see that the length of the primary tube on the headers is of great value. Too short or too long and you?ll hit the closed exhaust valve, or inhibit flow out of the combustion chamber. But if the primaries are the right length, you?ll make some HP! What is the proper primary length for a V6 Mustang? 30? is probably the ideal size, and 22- 24? for people that want to rev their engines really high. This site will give you a rough estimate on what your primary length should be for a given primary diameter and engine size.?? ? JustangFitment?The headers are made for years 94-97, 99-00, and 01-03. These are the years that you can order specifically for. Now, you might wonder to yourself ?But I have a 98/04, what do I do??. Well this is a common question and has a simple answer. The 04s will fit on the 01-03 and the 98s will fit the 94-97 but you will have to bend and modify the EGR tube or just delete it all together. So if you have a V-6 you can get long tubes.Installation:I will first start by saying that it is not that hard, just time consuming. To start off jack the front of the car up as high as you can and put on jack stands or have some roll on ramps if you can get on them. Then for safety chock the rear wheels and unplug the positive on the battery.Drivers side ? On my 2002 the EGR tube is on the passenger side but if yours is on the drivers side then just scroll down and look what to do when I go over it on the passenger side. First unbolt the dipstick holder, then using masking tape label the spark plug wires and where they go (its very bad to cross your wires). Remove the spark plug wires and unbolt the distributor box, I took mine off completely so I could get them out of the way. Then unbolt the headers. Space is tight so do yourself a favor and get some ratcheting closed-end wrenches. To get the old headers out, I recommend cutting the old pipes right after the secondary cats and sliding headers and cats out from the bottom.Passenger side ? Take off the air intake from the throttle body to the filter and put a bundle of paper towels in the throttle body to keep crap out of there. Treat the sparkplug wires the same as you did the drivers side. Remember to label the wires. On this side I had to disconnect the EGR tube, I first unbolted the pipe from the EGR solenoid. Then unscrew the tube from the old headers. Unbolt the headers and slide out from the bottom.To install the long tubes simply slide them from the bottom of the car and re-install everything that you took offImportant note: When installing new headers always use new exhaust gaskets. The old ones will fit but you don?t want to have to redo everything because of a leaking gasket.What else do I need?You will need some sort of mid-pipe to connect to a dual exhaust cat-back system. You can either get an H or X pipe, catted or not. You can even get an exhaust shop to make you something custom but most shops wont work on cars that don?t have cats and I recommend that nothing ever be welded to your headers because you most likely will need some sort of transmission work at some point in the cars life. You will need to get the midpipe made specificaly for long tube headers. This midpipe will act as an addapter so that you can use any exhaust made for your year GTFAQ?s:Q: Are they legal?A: Yes and No. It all depends on if you need emissions testing and how strict the testing is. If you live in California, don?t even think about long tubes. Anywhere else you can usually get by with having some high flow cats on your mid-pipes. If you don?t have testing then your good to go.Q: How low do they hang?A: They hang a little lower than your stock cats do right now. If you have a lowered car then you will need to be careful going over speed bumps. I have scraped them rather hard and nothing had happened to the headers. Look at picture below<img src="http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y26/greensteeda/100_0057.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Q: Do they delete my cats?A: Yes, all four, but you can get cats on the mid-pipe.Q: How do they sound?A: Look at the sound clips in my signature for a sample. I have Mac LT headers, Off Road H-pipe and Mac 2.5 inch exhaustQ: Do they rust?A: They can rust but with some header paint it should be no problem. They may surface rust but that?s as deep as it goes, it will actually prevent further rusting so once it starts to rust do not keep removing the rust.Q: Are there any Heat Issues?A: Less than stock headers actualy. You will run no more risk of burning plug wires than you would if you stayed with your stock headers. The have the same amount of heat at the top of the primaries (right off the block) and by the time the gas gets to the collectors it is actualy cooler than it would be with your stock setup due to more surface area for the heat to disapait.Q: Do I have to extend the O2 sensors?A: Yes, you will have to for all four sensors. Just splice the wires and you will be good to go.Q: Will I get a Check Engine Light?A: If you go with no cats at all yes you will have a CEL. If you have cats then most likely you will not. To turn off the CEL just get some MIL elliminators or get a tuner/chip that turns off the rear O2 sensorsQ: Where can I get them?A: Several places carry them, just google Mac ExhaustIf there are any more FAQs just let me know and i will keep adding them untill i get them all. hope this helps</blockquote>