Kooks or Pypes LT Headers

I agree with o2sys. I also bout those ebay Pypes knockoffs (which Pypes are carbon copies of kooks) for 80 buck though I have yet to install them. Theyre 304 stainless and come with everything. Even if I need to beat them up a little I wont be upset because like I said they were 80 bucks.

It's really up to you, OP. Name brand...cost savings....fitment.....made in America......what you put first on your priority list. I know that I have had NO second thoughts or regrets. I am completely happy with my decision to go with Kooks. I'm sure others can say the same about their decision to buy other brands.

I've had both Kooks and Pypes... The Pypes had warped head flanges right out of the box that I had to have a machine shop flatten..

The Kooks fit perfectly and had no issues with fitment

Can't tell the difference in power and sound between either one though. They were on two different engine builds.

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I’m a firm believer in paying for quality as well as doing things right the first time. Plus I prefer buying made in America, even if it is more expensive. But opinions are like assholes... I love my Kooks and was more than impressed with how well they looked before going in, how great the fitment was, and how even a year later they still look amazing. Only thing different I may have done was ceramic coating because the footwell inside is a bit hotter than before, but it’s well worth it in my opinion.

I had Pypes So called Stainless Steel headers. They started to RUST and turn blue in under a year.(chrome turns blue, stainless exhaust turns brown-ish over time from heat) I also put the Pypes dual conversion kit for V6. Fitment was poor IMO. And their customer service sucked ass.

Don’t mean to thread jack bit i’ve got a question... I’ve got the stock manifold & pypes X-pipes installed. Does this mean if I want to retain the X-pipes I have to only get the pypes headers? The kooks website says the headers have to be used with the kooks x-pipes...

I looked at the JBA's and they are priced comparable to Pypes. The design is different and the JBA's look more like a long tube than the Pypes which look more like a mid length header. As for the material of each and how long the pipes will last depends on where you live.

I'm still on the fence about them both, but I do know that i'm going with an off-road H and more than likely leaving my Roush Extreme exhaust on the car.

Brandon08GT said:

I’m a firm believer in paying for quality as well as doing things right the first time. Plus I prefer buying made in America, even if it is more expensive. But opinions are like assholes... I love my Kooks and was more than impressed with how well they looked before going in, how great the fitment was, and how even a year later they still look amazing. Only thing different I may have done was ceramic coating because the footwell inside is a bit hotter than before, but it’s well worth it in my opinion.

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I agree 100%.

I will pay more money for a quality product than save a few bucks to only run into problems with a cheaper brand, there are exceptions but for the most part a quality part is worth the extra coin in the longrun.

I have no comparison on my header choice but the Kooks and offroad H I used fit well and would purchase again even though they are pricey.

AND the drivers side CAN be installed without steering shaft removal or the rack unbolted,no reason to touch either of these.

Install done on car ramps.

I would be more concerned about quality of moving parts such as superchargers and engine rotating components. Exhaust is just metal tubing bent to shapes. I really don't understand the costs of some of the name brands.

Few things to add.

I had Kooks mid-lengths on my 5.0. Paid close to $1,600 for them with a 3" H-Pipe in a 1-3/4" size.

The shop that did the install told me a nice story of the work he has done. He's installed probably over 50 headers for just pypes alone. The quality is often horrible, and once in a while, you get a pair that fits with minimal issue. He always recommends Kooks or ARH for their quality and the fact that the bungs for 02 sensors are always spot on.

You get what you pay for with parts like these, and Kooks/ARH are top of the line for sure.

Not sure on gains for the 3V cars, but, on my 5.0, I swapped from stock manifolds with cat-deletes to the Kooks setup and went from 421/367 to 443/388 on the same dyno, same tune, etc.

You could settle in the middle and get JBA's or Stainless works, which make great products as well and have minimal fitment issues.

Onelildude said:

I looked at the JBA's and they are priced comparable to Pypes. The design is different and the JBA's look more like a long tube than the Pypes which look more like a mid length header. As for the material of each and how long the pipes will last depends on where you live.

I'm still on the fence about them both, but I do know that i'm going with an off-road H and more than likely leaving my Roush Extreme exhaust on the car.

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I have the Roush Extremes on my car with the Kooks high flow cats and it is LOUD!!!
I would think an off road H would make it tough not to get tickets. I guess it also depends where you live and what you do with it. Good luck.[/QUOTE]

06JET said:

I have the Roush Extremes on my car with the Kooks high flow cats and it is LOUD!!!
I would think an off road H would make it tough not to get tickets. I guess it also depends where you live and what you do with it. Good luck.

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I have pypes LT with off road H to small magna flow 4" round mufflers into my Cervinis side pipes! That's almost deafening. I have kooks high flow cats in the garage and planned on installing this weekend to tone it down a bit. You can hear it miles away. Lol

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Onelildude said:

I looked at the JBA's and they are priced comparable to Pypes. The design is different and the JBA's look more like a long tube than the Pypes which look more like a mid length header. As for the material of each and how long the pipes will last depends on where you live.

I'm still on the fence about them both, but I do know that i'm going with an off-road H and more than likely leaving my Roush Extreme exhaust on the car.

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The JBA's are longer than the kooks + pypes. The peak tq curve is shifted lower in the rpm range with the longer LT's. Kooks are shorter, mid length, and offer more tq at the upper end of the rpm range.. = more top end hp. It's a trade off of sorts. For a street car, I wanted the increased tq at the low and mid range rpms. The JBA's still have a substantial increase in hp / tq at the top end, just not as much as the kooks mid length design.

Pentalab said:

The JBA's are longer than the kooks + pypes. The peak tq curve is shifted lower in the rpm range with the longer LT's. Kooks are shorter, mid length, and offer more tq at the upper end of the rpm range.. = more top end hp. It's a trade off of sorts. For a street car, I wanted the increased tq at the low and mid range rpms. The JBA's still have a substantial increase in hp / tq at the top end, just not as much as the kooks mid length design.

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My car is purely a street car, that see the drag stripe once or twice a year, so the low end torque will be perfect for my car.

06JET said:

I have the Roush Extremes on my car with the Kooks high flow cats and it is LOUD!!!
I would think an off road H would make it tough not to get tickets. I guess it also depends where you live and what you do with it. Good luck.

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[/QUOTE]

I still have my stock axle backs so if it's too loud, i'll swap those back in until I figure out what to replace them with. I live in a rural area, so I don't have much to worry about...

I JBA's are priced comparable to Pypes and they offer different material and sizes, so at this point I'm really considering the 1-5/8", 2-1/2"collector Titanium ceramic coated ones.

Recently bought Kooks headers for my car. I called them to confirm the material used is 304 grade stainless (the good stuff). They are beautifully made. I had them ceramic coated with the 1800*.

A few months ago, I installed Pypes mid-pipes and they are most definitely 409 (the cheaper stainless, less nickel and chromium), so they tarnish much faster than the 304.

Kooks is nice stuff.

o2sys said:

My Pypes copies are welded on the inside as well.

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What ebay seller did you get these from?
I know the cheap clones are frowned on but is there a preferred seller who has known decent clones on ebay?

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/331914727652

This is the one him and I got. Mine was an auction and I was the only one who bid so I bid the minimum and got them for 80 bucks.

07gts197 said:

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/331914727652

This is the one him and I got. Mine was an auction and I was the only one who bid so I bid the minimum and got them for 80 bucks.

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And they are indeed stainless and fit decent?
If I was to update a tune what would I say they are - what brand of longtube headers?
I may go ahead and order some, they will look good on garage wall if nothing else lol.
What h pipe would you run with these? do the chinese make short h pipes? lol

Part of the reason I went with JBA's was the H pipe, too many brands only have an X pipe available.

As for the tune it doesn't really matter what brand you have. Dyno tests show they're pretty close across the board power-wise.

ghunt81 said:

Part of the reason I went with JBA's was the H pipe, too many brands only have an X pipe available.

As for the tune it doesn't really matter what brand you have. Dyno tests show they're pretty close across the board power-wise.

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Ok... havnt ordered my tune yet so wasnt sure of the process.
So are the ebay headers clones of pypes longtubes.... and if so will this h pipe work? https://www.americanmuscle.com/pypes-or-hpipe-0510gt.html

Sorry for my mini thread hijack... I appreciate the help guys!!! Been trying to find info on what ebay headers are decent for weeks.