F150 Exhaust Headers

Choosing the right F150 Headers

As with most F150 parts, there's more than few different types of headers to choose from, and it can be tough to find the right set of headers for your truck. With differences in header type, primary size, and mid-pipe types it can be a pain to find the set of headers that works best with your F150.

Shorty vs. Long Tube Headers
Short tube (shorty) headers or long tube headers is a question we get often, and there's some major differences between the two that may seriously effect your decision. Shorty headers are basically drop-in replacements for your truck's manifolds. They're less expensive than long tube headers, and don't require a shorter Y-pipe, which saves you money. Many shorty headers are also CARB-approved. However, shorty headers don't get you anywhere near the power of long tube headers, and are really just meant to replace worn or cracked factory manifolds. Long tube headersfeature long primary tubes that taper down to a collector which all work together to improve exhaust outflow from your engine to provide power gains, Long tube headers also require their own short Y-pipes for fitment, which also help with power gains, but also cause long tube headers to be fairly expensive. The oher downside is that off-road and high-flow catted header systems and Y-pipes aren't going to pass emissions.

1-3/4" vs. 1-7/8" Primaries, and why you should usually go smaller
Long tube header systems for the F150s tend to come in two basic flavors these days: those with 1-5/8" primary tubes and those with 1-7/8" primary tubes. Bigger is better, right? Well, not exactly. The issue with 1-7/8" headers is that their large diameters tend to alleviate too much back pressure which leads to a drop in low-end torque on most engines that aren't supercharged. Granted, you exchange that low-end torque for top-end horsepower, but on a truck application, that's not necessarily a good thing. In general, we recommend sticking with 1-3/4" headers unless your F150 is supercharged or you're planning on installing a supercharger kit or nitrous system down the road.

Catted vs. Off-Road Header Systems
Whether you should go with a long tube header system that deletes your catalytic converters entirely or comes with a new set of cats is an age old debate. In general, the difference between the two is mostly going to be about what kind of sound you want out of your truck, though off-road header systems and Y-pipes do provide a bit more horsepower and torque at the end of the day. Catted systems (both high-flow and 48-state legal) generate much less drone and rasp than off-road systems, which can be extremely important if you already have an aftermarket cat-back kit on your truck. 48-state legal systems (like the Kooks GREEN Y-pipes) will even pass emissions in any non-CARB state, which saves you hassles on emissions testing. Still, off-road systems do make more power, so if you're willing to deal with both emissions and rasp in exchange for horsepower and torque, then they may be your go-to.