Written by Steve Baur
Photography by the author
When it comes to late-model Mustangs, exhaust upgrades are often the first upgrades, and for good reason. Companies like BBK Performance offer great options to improve the engine performance as well as the audio and visual aesthetics of your car’s exhaust system. When it came time to upgrade the headers on this particular 2002 Mustang GT, we called on BBK Performance for quality-made, good-looking, and performing exhaust parts.
Short-tube headers, or shorties as they are more commonly referred to, mimic the length of the factory exhaust headers or manifolds. Because of this, they usually work with the factory mid-pipe that connects the manifolds or headers to the rear portion of the exhaust system. They often offer performance advantages, especially when paired with a higher-flowing mid-pipe, and installation is usually easier because of their dimensions.
Shorty headers also provide enthusiasts with easier access to the transmission and clutch, as the longer mid-pipe used in those applications is much easier to remove and offers ample space around the transmission.
Long-tube headers offer the best performance improvements due to their design, but that design mandates a more difficult installation. Once installed, they can inhibit work on the transmission, or more likely, the bellhousing and clutch assembly, and sometimes must be uninstalled or loosened to allow the bellhousing to be removed.
BBK Performance offers both short- and long-tube header designs to suit a variety of enthusiasts and applications. We initially wanted to go with shorty headers for this 2002 Mustang GT project car. Instead, we opted for the long-tube design as that is what the car previously had on it, and the engine combination was purportedly good for over 300-rear-wheel-horsepower in that configuration.
BBK Performance offers its headers in a matte finish Titanium ceramic coating or a polished silver ceramic coating. BBK noted that both last a long time, but the polished silver ceramic coating seems to look the best longer according to its customers. That was the coating we opted for, though it is a shame that the 4.6-liter Two-Valve design doesn’t allow you to see the beautiful finish from the engine bay.
BBK Performance’s long-tube headers (PN 15410) for 1996-2004 Mustang GT models feature 1 5/8-inch primary tubes and ball-and-socket collector flanges that allow an easy connection to the company’s short-style mid-pipe. Header bolts and gaskets are included, but you’ll need to order a set of oxygen sensor adaptors (PN 1676) to connect the factory harnesses to the sensors that will be relocated downstream in the header collector tubes.
Currently, BBK Performance only sells catalytic converter-equipped mid-pipes, but that was fine with us, for several reasons. We want to be mindful of the environment, we don’t need the car to be loud (In reality, we want to quiet it down to prevent unwanted attention), and the converters these days flow much better than those from decades ago, and should we lose a few horsepower by using them, we weren’t even sure we were going to miss it in this street-based application.
With that, we chose BBK’s 2.5-inch short, catted high-flow X-pipe for 1996-2004 Mustang GTs (PN 1638). It is built with a mandrel tubing bender for optimal flow and is fitted with high-flow catalytic converters to keep the environment and the smog inspectors happy. Just like the headers, the mid-pipe ships with all the necessary mounting hardware.
The subject vehicle for this upgrade is a 2002 Mustang GT that was purchased with a hydro-locked engine and because of this, the installation was a little different in that the long-tube headers were fitted to a replacement 4.6-liter V-8 as it was being dropped into the engine bay. It was just a matter of laying some towels down on the K-member, laying the headers in there, and then bolting them up once the engine was down into the engine bay far enough.
Once installed, the headers offer plenty of ground clearance and are easily mated up to the high-flow mid-pipe using the included hardware. The previous exhaust system, which you can see in the accompanying photos, hung down beneath the car, which is significantly lowered and showed signs of impact.
The BBK Performance headers and mid-pipe reside much higher in the chassis, and we used a floor jack during installation for extra support while tightening the fasteners, and to ensure that it was fitted as high in the chassis as possible.
With this 2002 Mustang GT now some 22 years old, we’re not sure if we should call it a “late-model” Mustang anymore. It’s more of a mid-classic perhaps and with that said, it’s great that companies like BBK Performance still provide enthusiasts with replacement and upgraded components for these cars.
BBK Performance offers everything you need, short of a lift and someone to install headers and mid-pipe on your Mustang. The company also manufactures many other components for your 1990-2004 Mustang GT.
The headers that were on the car looked horrible. They were damaged from driving over who knows what, and the worst part was that they were welded directly to a cobbled-together mid-pipe, so we had to cut them just to remove them, and the engine.
From the factory, the Mustang GT comes with studs that the factory manifolds are mounted to, but as the subject vehicle already had headers, these had long since been discarded. Since the engine was out of the car, we chased the bolt holes with a tap to ensure the header bolts would thread in easily.
Ball-and-socket flanges make exhaust connections rather easy, especially if you are taking something apart and putting it back together.
Even with a solid 2-plus-inch drop from the heated coil springs, this Mustang still has 3-4 inches of header clearance. Hopefully, we’ll gain a little more once we install a quality set of aftermarket coil springs.
