Finally, two years later after initially starting this thread, I bit the bullet and decided to buy myself a set of Banks Torque Tubes. The wife was tired of hearing me debate with myself about whether to give in or not, and she twisted my rubber arm. (looking at them on ebay after having a couple beers may have helped with the decision making also).
Received them last week, and now they sit idle, waiting for me to get working on removing the manifolds, etc... I've got (4) broken studs for sure, and I'm sure there'll be more to come. Fighting to remove those is something I'm not particularly looking forward to. Oh yeah, I've decided to try to tackle this project on my own (with the help of various related FTE posts of course).

 

I made the decision to go with the Banks system also. Ours showed up the other day. We gathered parts and tools today, have a graduation party tomorrow, so will get started Sunday. We have 8 or 9 broken studs. I hope both our projects go well.

 

I can report summit bolts working fine for several years and two sets of Hedman headers. Second set holding up fine. Gibson exhaust few year old now too. Fine. Couple o rattles but figured it out and got it in good shape

 

Does anyone know the correct part # for the Hedman headers?

 

I am saving my money to buy the Doug Thorley long tube headers. They are made with 14 gauge tubes and are ceramic coated inside and out. Long tube headers produce a lot more power than shorty headers and you will not have the leak problems with the ball socket on the shorty header. I found some on sale for $639.00. I think it is worth it to pay the extra and get the best.

I currently have a set of very similar long tube headers on my Ramcharger and they work very well. The 14 gauge wall thickness of the tubes and the ceramic coating keep the under hood temp down to what the factory manifolds were and you cannot hear that typical header sound. Power gain on the little 318 is about 25-30 hp. and 1 mpg better on the HWY.

Go to summit racing

http://www.summitracing.com/?gclid=C...FZKCfgod9ToACA

and look up the specks for all the different brands.

I will always try to buy a header like this from now on. It really is worth the extra money !

Steve in Tucson

 

Mowing Man, the Hedman Headers part numbers are:89660 for standard, non HTC coated, and 89666 for the HTC coated headers. Summit Racing currently has the 89660 for $357. And I checked with Hedman, those are the upgraded "bulletproof" versions, with the lifetime warranty, and re-configured ball socket setup.
Just ordered mine today...:-)

 

well I ordered mine and the y pipe hits the oil pan and I can't tighten it up. I haven't gotten any response from hedman either.

 

toddb1, let me know what happens with that. Seems odd it is hitting the oil pan. From reading other posts, there should be plenty of room. I know Hedman has stepped up earlier when there were problems. Got me kind of worried now. Is your truck modified in any way? What part of the oil pan is it hitting, bottom, corner, side, etc? And when did you order them? I know there were some design changes a few years back. Thanks for your input.

 

Finally got a shipping notification on my Thorley's hopefully it will be a pain free job LOL

 

Can you post a pic for us?

 

the problem is the transmission tab, I set it free. The pipe went up without it only to discover the bolts supplied for the ball flanges are too short. I can start the threads on one but the other two don't make it through the flange.

I was replacing my ebay headers with these, turned out to be more work than I wanted....lucky for me it cooled down to 105* today.

 

I was finally able to get the manifolds loose tonight. The studs were pretty rusted. I ended up with six broken studs on the drivers side; four of which are broken a few threads into the head, and two broken just behind the nut. There are five broken studs on the passenger side, two inside the head and three behind the nut. I bought some left-handed drill bits today, so hopefully that will help get the studs out that are broken inside the heads. But I have a feeling some welding will be needed...
I was struggling to remove some of the nuts on the passenger side yesterday behind the shock mount. I removed the shock mount today, which made things much easier! I had stripped some of the nuts, and ended up jamming or hammering a smaller size socket onto them to give something to grab onto. Thankfully the stubborn ones spun out after that.
I attempted to loosen the nuts on the cat inlet flange and on the Y-pipe yesterday, but couldn't budge the nuts on the Y-pipe even with the PB Blaster. Two of the three nuts are now round on the cat inlet flange. But since the flange will be cut off to install the Banks Torque Tubes anyways, there's no point in struggling with the nuts, so I'll just cut the pipe at 7"from the flange, towards the cat. Since the Y-pipe is being replaced also, I think I'll just cut it in half to remove the manifolds, instead of fighting with the other exhaust studs.
Lance Helmert, how is your project going?

 

welding is the best way to go, I think I broke 9 when I originally took mine off.

My collector bolts are to short as well, I guess they didn't update the BOM when they put the final stamp on these things. I have to make a hanger for the y pipe yet.

I started it up and burned the paint off...I'm almost done with the procharger install so it was nice to hear that thing run

 

Has anyone ported the stock exhaust manifolds?

 

Why?

The whole point of headers is to create a savaging effect in the cylinder. More exhaust out, more fresh air/fuel in. Compare the stock 2V V10 log manifold to the 3V V10 header like manifold and then to a header. I don't think any amount of porting would help.