Got a response in about two hours. Going to send me a replacement set and y pipe. Thanks guys. Pretty painless and easy so far. Have to pay freight but still good deal on 2 1/2 year old pipes. Keep you posted.

 

Excellent news!

 

Muffler has hole now. Looking to replace from y pipe back now. Maybe keep cat, maybe not. Not needed here for inspection due to weight of truck. Any recommendations?

 

Hello
Awesome thread, lots of great info Thanks for all the effort put into it. I enjoyed the read.
just spent the the last hour reading all these posts. I am so glad I didn't stop after page two and buy a set, LOL. I had headers on myy 99 v10 and had nothing but problems with them also. When I transformed by 2wd into 4wd I put in a new 03 crate motor and I went with factory pipes. I just ddn't like the tinging sound of the headers. Oh yea the leaks and the metal fatique. Had to weld holes that formed in the headers.

SO what I would lie to find out is if the preformance is really that much better with headers. I know that unless you rev over 4k all the time the flow is not that helpful.

Thanks

 

For ak-angler and bakon, who are going to or have already received the warranteed set of Hedmans....

Check the header flange against one of the exhaust gaskets. Especially the driver's side.

BEFORE you rip everything apart assuming the headers will just bolt up like the first set did.

I'll fill in the details on this later but for now, check them out fully before (trying) to install them.

For me, the saga continues...

 

Oh noes!

I'm planning on doing mine tomorrow. Thanks for the heads up.

 

I emailed Friday, been two weeks. Told hedders are done and being coated, y pipe being made. Takes time due to custom set.?.
Should be done soon.

Whats wrong with new set? He is going to call me before shipping, so maybe I can avoid something before they are sent out.

 

Thanks again for the heads-up Art. I checked the gasket against the header flange and... well, it looks like I'm going to be calling Hedman on Monday.

Here's what I found...

The passenger's side, with its single piece flange seems to match the gasket well enough. But the driver's side the header flange is split to accommodate the dipstick tube, and the two pieces aren't properly aligned.

The first picture shows the gasket over the section with the dipstick gap. As you can see, the gasket is lined up with the exhaust port and bolt holes on the left, but not aligned with the exhaust port and bolt holes on the right. The second and third pictures show each side close up, with the gasket held in the same position as the first picture.







So, I guess I'll have to live with leaking headers for a while longer. And as a bonus, it snowed here this morning. So when I do finally get to crawl under my truck to swap out the headers, I'm going to have to shovel the driveway to do it.

I am soooo not happy right now.

 

Hey Art, what kind of gaskets came with your replacement set? The gaskets I got with my warranty set are different than the gaskets that came with the original set. The new ones are a typical 3-layer gasket with metal in the middle. The previous gaskets were a single layer acrylic fiber gasket. And, the curious thing is that both gaskets are the same part number (part # 27580). Very strange.

 

I guess I have a different idea of what it means to stand behind something. My thought would be, "Oh crap! We really screwed up on this design."

No way should a customer have to pay shipping on a warranty item. There is nothing more important than reputation and if it were my company, I would not even think about making the customer pay shipping.

 

That alignment issue is exactly the same thing for me - may or may not be more off than yours, but definitely in the same direction. Looks like the jig was way off...

As for the gaskets, yes, same thing for me - originals were the paper/acrylic, which held up rather well... but it took a long time for them to stop compressing. I think it was over a month of commuting before the header bolts didn't need to be checked and retightened. These might be better in that respect. These new ones are also the same composition as the ones I used on my '74 highboy headers. And they lasted 15+ years.

Because I already had it all apart, I went ahead and ground the holes to match the gasket, radiused the port with a die grinder to match the gasket, and installed it. I will definitely be pushing for a replacement anyway, as the coating is buggered, and I had to use flat washers under the bolts to cover the elongated hole and get a good flat grip. Not to mention the ports don't align with the head well.

The saga continues. I tell you, if I could have found a Banks dealer locally, I would have called this morning to see if they had a set

 

So the gasket is correct and the hedders are wrong?

 

Yup. That's what I'm seeing.

 

Wow, what a saga. I personally think the moral of this story is...look elsewhere when considering headers.

 

That stinks! You guys have my sympathy!