Sorry, but I agree to disagree, the exhaust is the most restrictive part of the intake/exhaust train. The efficiency by opening up the exhaust helps tons, or the plog would make no sense. Fact is, you wanna go cheap, then sure, go with the plog and call it a day as you say. But for investing a little more you get the whole kitten/kaboodle!
I also disagree with your assessment that a Transmission is best investment as it is counter intuitive to the application as you pointed out its his wife's car and a dd to boot, not drag stip wonder car. Headers... Simple thing that sets the stage for anything else that comes along afterwards. You're not needing to invest in a built tranny unless hitting 350 whp, so what are we talking about here?
Plog $159
ubend delete $39 (cause you ain't doing the plog without this)
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Headers SD $220+
So, with cost being equal, I would give the opened flow to both front and rear via headers, it's simple.![]()