Even so you dont tell a guy whos about to pay you several hundy all that. if he truly knows the facts about headers, he should have picked a different way to say he wasnt gonna do it.
i dont like to jump to conclutions but if someone told me headers werent a good performance enhancer i would either assume they were dumb or they simply didnt know about them.

 

so if I did shorty headers and a magnaflow y-pipe, it'd still see performance gains and probably better mpg and would not ever have to sweat passing the inspection?

long-tubes are worth risking? If I get "caught" do I get in trouble or just fail the inspection and have to put something else on?

 

first off as the vehicle is going, moving ,not sitting. the engine compartment is being filled with cool air and any heat from the motor is quickly dispersed. I ran digital thermal scans while driving (very easy)
so any cai remotely near the right side headlamp will get sufficient air not frigid but cooler air than a vehicle at rest running where you will get warm air.
My personal opinion is this guy clearly didn't want to move those cats,And instead of stating fed law he played the I am smarter than the customer card. too bad the op was a df'er well educated. imo.

 

Shorty's are better than manifolds, mid tubes are better than shortys, but LTs give the best gains in both the performance and MPG departments.

If you have LTs in an inspection state you'd simply fail the inspection. If your state simply plugs into the port and looks for CELs, you would pass if you retained your stock cats, but just moved them...

 

I think I'm just going to call him and ask. He's pretty laid back. He once passed my Explorer that didn't have a muffler or a straight pipe or anything because he saw my new muffler sitting in the back seat!

 

It may be difficult to find a shop to do LTs for you, since technically they are for "OFF-ROAD USE ONLY". Installing them and either removing or relocating the cats to accomodate the length of the headers is illegal. Most of us with LTs and I think all of us who retained the cats did the work ourselves...

 

so long as your headers retain your cats, they can even be magnaflow hi flow, youre set on emissions and visual. im not sure about youre states codes, but you shouldnt have any problems.
however, i dont know a longtube header on the market that allows you to retain that factory position. maybe there is. on any emissions-controlled vehicle today, its illegal to move the cats from the factory position. its also illegal to tamper with the egr valve.
with longtubes and relocated cats, youd pass emissions but not visual. if you got caught on the street with an illegal exhaust setup youd probably get a nice hefty fine. check your states laws before spending the money to put headers on. otherwise, setting up longtubes would be a waste, theyd make you get a different setup.
you probably wont get caught to be honest. the only reason a cop might check would be noise level.

 

I wouldn't do lt's too much at stake and not a big enough bank account for me imo

 

I can tell you I have an laser guided temperature gun and the hotest temp I could get on my ceramic headers was 250-275* externally. I need to do a video

 

you guys have strict laws in your states!. here in SE missouri, there is no emission testing. only a visual inspection. making anything you want to do exhaust wise, not a problem.