97 Mounty Cam and Exhaust costs/methods

[OzMounty]

First mod that I want to do is just get it sounding a bit nicer,
Im in NC and I dont think we have emissions testing anymore. Would an exhaust shop gut or delete my rear cats?

Would love a cam just to get it sounding a little loopey.
I thought it was tight in there and read on here that the engine needs to be pulled to do a cam!
What's a rough number of hours would that take for a workshop?
And since the motor is out what are things that could be good to do at the same time? 70k mile motor in good working order. A mild torque converter? Or just parts that are good to change while the chance is there. Hopefully, no more motor pulls in the future.
I think headers are not just available off the shelf for these so what I would need to put an order in and wait?

Want to spend about $5K to get at least a 50hp boost and be sounding a lil like this

 

[410Fortune]

So you have a 97 mounty 5.0 with 70k miles! Nice

You will need some
Sort of exhaust header before you can make any additional power… the stock manifolds are choking the power it can make now

Researching header options you will find people are waiting over a year to get a set of torque monsters and obx is no longer making the clones

Couple of members here taking about making. New set of headers but nothing yet

You can always make some or get some made! It’s not an easy task on these rigs

Cam can be installed with engine in the truck especially if you are willing to cut up your radiator support a little, but it can be done in the truck by moving some
Things around.

There is a very old page on this forum showing a e303 cam install with engine in truck