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Yes, yes they are. Take and look at a majority of the tests done with stock manifolds and headers, compare them, and you will see a pattern of gains at the higher rpm every time, even the bad headers out there. At the same time, look at where they compare to mandrel bent dual exhaust with H pipe or X pipe on stock manifolds and you will see that at normal cruising rpm, the increase over stock is little to no improvement, being the curve below 3000rpm in most cases. I find that you can get a little more improvement over porting the exhaust manifolds themselves, clean them up a bit and open the dump itself is a good savings of $150-800 UNLESS YOU ARE GOING TO BE RACING OR ROUTINELY RUN ABOVE THE 3000RPM RANGE, WHERE HEADERS START TO SHINE.
Not saying headers are a bad thing, just saying on street applications and normal driving/cruising on the highway, the gain is not worth the cost. Shorty headers are a good replacement for some of the stock exhaust manifolds, at least you don't have as great a volume of heat or road rash/leaks, etc..
Not saying headers are a bad thing, just saying on street applications and normal driving/cruising on the highway, the gain is not worth the cost. Shorty headers are a good replacement for some of the stock exhaust manifolds, at least you don't have as great a volume of heat or road rash/leaks, etc..