Originally posted by warmonger:
I'd bet my LEFT NUT that your 5HP increase was mostly from the the fact that the headers were tested at a temperature 20 degrees cooler than the other! That makes a huge difference by itself.
warmonger
Just something I would like to add from my recent experiences. I have noticed that if you do not keep a certain amount of backpressure, looks like close to the engine, N/A duratecs lose power instead of gaining power. That is what was seen with our SVT. Installed a super high flow Hermoff converter with the headers and the power dropped off, so much so that I have had all of the additional exhaust work put back to the way it was before we purchased the SVT. That also includes putting back in a slightly less flowing, but high flowing CATCO converter. This SVT actually produced the most torque with a Superchip and all stock cats in place, and with a igh flowing exhaust system.
Just wanted to point out this observation. Therefore, if you can keep a certain amount of backpressure with the MSDS headers, the benefits of the headers should be seen. As a side note, on our OBD-1 Project SE, we saw a 8hp gain and 6lbsft of torque over an already modified engine. That was measured at the wheels. This equates to a 10hp gain at peak for the SE. Please note that the numbers are SAE corrected.
