My exhaust manifolds on my 97 5.4 are warped and leaking , so I would like to replace them whith headers

I would like to hear from anyone that has headers on one of these engines.

Did you install them yourself? If so, are there any problems associated whith removing the bolts from the aluminum heads?

What brand?

Any fitment issues?

Thanks!!!!

 

I put JBA shorty headers on my 99 5.4L F-150. I installed them myself and they were a huge pain. There is just no room to work, and I even took out the inner fender wells. I suggest having the exhaust shop do it for you. If you do try it yourself make sure you unhook your steering linkage and 4 wheel drive line. This will save you from a lot of trouble and frustration.
All of the studs came out of the heads fine. JbA does a good job mating the flange with the head and all of the bolt holes lined up good. The shorty headers fit nice with the exhisting exhaust. On some of the bolt holes you'll need to use the oringinal stud instead of he provided bolts. There is not enough room to get the bolts through the hole and hand start the threads.
If you do install the headers yourself you will still need to take it to an exhaust shop to have the bolts torqued down right, because you will only be able to get a torque wrench on about 2 of the 16 bolts.
You can find JBA stainless headers for about $500. Pay any more than that and you're getting ripped off.

 

Thanks a lot for the info 99 Monster!

I think I am going to go with the JBA headers, I also plan on installing them myself

 

Can you get the header system to pass emissions from JBA? I live in Arizona, and we have some pretty ridiculous emissions laws.

 

Look at this link from Ken Bell http://www.kennebell.net/techinfo/fo...s-and-suvs.pdf
He says he never saw a set of headers that didn't hurt low end power.

 

That is pretty much true. Performance gains are minimal unless you completely redo the exhaust. But in his case with a leaking manifold as it is a nice set of HTC coated stainless steel headers from JBA or Bassani would at least look better and lower underhood temps a little. A lot of those magazines base those numbers off Lightnings which do see good gains from headers.