The Mustang Forum for Track & Racing Enthusiasts

Taking your Mustang to an open track/HPDE event for the first time? Do you race competitively? This forum is for you! Log in to remove most ads.

  • Welcome to the Ford Mustang forum built for owners of the Mustang GT350, BOSS 302, GT500, and all other S550, S197, SN95, Fox Body and older Mustangs set up for open track days, road racing, and/or autocross. Join our forum, interact with others, share your build, and help us strengthen this community!

Stainless power vs Kooks headers

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

3
6
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
Under 3 Years
Texas
I tried searching but found no results…is anyone running stainless power headers and hasn’t run into any issues on track? Looking at putting headers on the car and torn between stainless power or kooks, the kooks are about $500 more which I have no problem paying but if I can have just as good headers for $500 less why not right? Lol I know a lot of people run the stainless power on mustangs but not sure how many actually track the car and run it hard. Any advice or input welcome, Thanks
 

Mad Hatter

Gotta go Faster
5,237
4,227
Santiago, Chile
Well here is a funny story...... When my Kooks headers wore out.. Bought a pair of stepped stainless headers from ebay for $250, we cut the ends off and slapped on a pair of merge collectors ..... got better results then the kooks for far less!
 
Another fine example of Mother of invention coming in a time of need..........Praise the Lord...Hallejah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.....This is not a joke.............He is REAL..................OOPS, not TMO Fodder..
 

Mad Hatter

Gotta go Faster
5,237
4,227
Santiago, Chile
A lot of headache and noise for small power gains, but stainless power seems to have decent build quality.
Curious, why the small power gains?? Most of the S550 gen3 cars I see passing through the shop I go to, end up with 490 to 505rwhp on 93 pump gas after a LTH and tune. On my Boss, the kooks were good for 30rwhp.

By the way the build quality for the Kooks is not that great. The flange for the exhaust ports looks pressed in, not welded.
 
Last edited:
Curious, why the small power gains?? Most of the S550 gen3 cars I see passing through the shop I go to, end up with 490 to 505rwhp on 93 pump gas after a LTH and tune. On my Boss, the kooks were good for 30rwhp.

By the way the build quality for the Kooks is not that great. The flange for the exhaust ports looks pressed in, not welded.
Alot of those gains are from the tune, not necessarily the headers in most situations.
 
334
352
It also seems a lot of comparisons are between stock headers with cats versus LTH with cat deletes. What is the difference between stock coyote headers and LTH, both with cat deletes? I've had trouble finding that before vs. after test. Is that really 30 hp?
 

Mad Hatter

Gotta go Faster
5,237
4,227
Santiago, Chile
My 30+ hp was stock vs Kooks with x-pipe and cats. We see 30 hp as pretty much across the board from s197 to S550 including the gen3 cars. Its the fist thing thats done to the cars that are looking for more power.

Interesting note is that my Boss went from 378hp to 403rwhp just with the kooks/catted setup and no tune. Later we added all the rest of the goodies. Torque was really noticeable.
 
465
438
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
Under 3 Years
MD
I tried searching but found no results…is anyone running stainless power headers and hasn’t run into any issues on track? Looking at putting headers on the car and torn between stainless power or kooks, the kooks are about $500 more which I have no problem paying but if I can have just as good headers for $500 less why not right? Lol I know a lot of people run the stainless power on mustangs but not sure how many actually track the car and run it hard. Any advice or input welcome, Thanks
I have been running catted Stainless Power since 2020 and have not had a single issue. At the time of purchase, I got them for about $800 or so from Beefcake racing. No idea on prices now. My mechanic installed them for $500 which was the deciding factor on getting them because some quotes given for header install can be double that. Never been on a dyno to track gains.
 
I have been running catted Stainless Power since 2020 and have not had a single issue. At the time of purchase, I got them for about $800 or so from Beefcake racing. No idea on prices now. My mechanic installed them for $500 which was the deciding factor on getting them because some quotes given for header install can be double that. Never been on a dyno to track gains.
Can your mechanic come out and do mine. Mine wants $1,200 to do them
 

TMO Supporting Vendors

Top