Tubular Headers

   Lot's of Mustang 5.0 headers to chose from, most should fit OK, but have heard of one "Long" set that had a little interference.  

    I had bought a Mustang "H" pipe & "Shorties" to use on my LX.  Then I found out it's illegal here in California to change the # of Cats, even if adding more than original.   So 4 on the H is more than the original one.  But how many Smog Stations really look under the car.   I was going to use a big "Y" after the H  so that the one outlet would look stock & also avoid interfering with the external fuel pump.  Some T-Birds avoided this interference  by using a shorter muffler on the fuel pump side. But also on the LTD the brake & fuel lines may not be routed out of the way as on the T-Bird. 

    Then I heard from a reliable source, that the 85 Mustang's 5.0 HO, CFI, AOD tubular header with a Y pipe worked very good on the street.  It also has the fittings for the Hot Air tubes & a 85 part # stamped on them so it should be no problem with smoging. 

    This is a one year only  setup as the outlets are 2 1/2" while 86-95 is 2 1/4".   Then to use the stock or even custom Y, you need the cast iron "Heat Riser" on the drivers side, as  that header had a flat surface to match the Heat Riser.

    Also the AOD & 5 speed Y's are different & not interchangeable.  The 5 speed also has one Cat, where the AOD's has none!

    So I joined the 2 1/2" Y's outlet to a 3" Super Cat & a 3" Edelbrock muffler.   At the time there were no 3" Mustang tail pipes so I used a 2 1/2" mandrel bent one.  Good fit except for being a foot short at the bumper.    Sounds like a big block,  fun setting off car alarms in the parking structures.

    Lincoln LSC headers?

    It's been noted that the about 85 LSC's have tublar's that also have the Hot Air fittings for the CFI.  They are different tho in that they have what appears to be a 2 1/4" outlet which may bolt right up to a Mustang H pipe.   Also different in that they have only 3 tubes at the outlet flange instead of the better four.   Should be fine for the street.

Ycat.GIF (27025 bytes) YY.GIF (94731 bytes)

    The Y on the far right is for a 5 speed.

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