diff --git a/lib/Cake/Network/CakeResponse.php b/lib/Cake/Network/CakeResponse.php
index 74113c63a42..549b71aa3d4 100644
--- a/lib/Cake/Network/CakeResponse.php
+++ b/lib/Cake/Network/CakeResponse.php
@@ -363,13 +363,17 @@ public function send() {
  * @return void
  */
 	protected function _setContentLength() {
-		$shouldSetLength = empty($this->_headers['Content-Length']) && !in_array($this->_status, range(301, 307));
+		$shouldSetLength = !isset($this->_headers['Content-Length']) && !in_array($this->_status, range(301, 307));
+		if (isset($this->_headers['Content-Length']) && $this->_headers['Content-Length'] === false) {
+			unset($this->_headers['Content-Length']);
+			return;
+		}
 		if ($shouldSetLength && !$this->outputCompressed()) {
 			$offset = ob_get_level() ? ob_get_length() : 0;
 			if (ini_get('mbstring.func_overload') & 2 && function_exists('mb_strlen')) {
-				$this->_headers['Content-Length'] = $offset + mb_strlen($this->_body, '8bit');
+				$this->length($offset + mb_strlen($this->_body, '8bit'));
 			} else {
-				$this->_headers['Content-Length'] = $offset + strlen($this->_body);
+				$this->length($this->_headers['Content-Length'] = $offset + strlen($this->_body));
 			}
 		}
 	}
@@ -696,6 +700,22 @@ public function protocol($protocol = null) {
 		return $this->_protocol;
 	}
 
+/**
+ * Sets the Content-Length header for the response
+ * If called with no arguments returns the last Content-Length set
+ *
+ * @return int
+ */
+	public function length($bytes = null) {
+		if ($bytes !== null ) {
+			$this->_headers['Content-Length'] = $bytes;
+		}
+		if (isset($this->_headers['Content-Length'])) {
+			return $this->_headers['Content-Length'];
+		}
+		return null;
+	}
+
 /**
  * String conversion.  Fetches the response body as a string.
  * Does *not* send headers.
diff --git a/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Network/CakeResponseTest.php b/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Network/CakeResponseTest.php
index fc38218cfff..cb66280f627 100644
--- a/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Network/CakeResponseTest.php
+++ b/lib/Cake/Test/Case/Network/CakeResponseTest.php
@@ -514,4 +514,25 @@ public function testProtocol() {
 			->method('_sendHeader')->with('HTTP/1.0 200 OK');
 		$response->send();
 	}
+
+/**
+ * Tests getting/setting the Content-Length
+ *
+ * @return void
+ */
+	public function testLength() {
+		$response = $this->getMock('CakeResponse', array('_sendHeader', '_sendContent'));
+		$response->length(100);
+		$this->assertEquals(100, $response->length());
+		$response->expects($this->at(2))
+			->method('_sendHeader')->with('Content-Length', 100);
+		$response->send();
+
+		$response = $this->getMock('CakeResponse', array('_sendHeader', '_sendContent'));
+		$response->length(false);
+		$this->assertFalse($response->length());
+		$response->expects($this->exactly(2))
+			->method('_sendHeader');
+		$response->send();
+	}
 }