hi guys,

I appear to have a sizeable leak on the passenger side exhaust manifold of my 2005 5.4l 4x4 f150 ext cab it needs to go in for that as well as a flexplate replacement so i am considering swapping to a set of headers since they will be in there anyway. the questions i have are mainly
1. is it really worth it. I do a lot of hauling and am in the truck alot so a little extra hp and mpg would be nice

2. any brands i should avoid or use over others

3. is it possible that this would cause any damage to the truck in the long run

it only has 55k on it so i plan to drive it for a while

 

If it is under warranty stick with stock

 

...and I would go ahead with long tube headers, if I was having to remove an exhaust manifold anyway. I would recommend stainless piping for NY, or they'll vanish in the road salt. There may be other costs too, such as different or repositioning of, the catalytic converters & O2 sensors.

It's a retirement present!

 

I posed basically the same question some time back. The general consensus I got was if you want to invest in long tube headers then yes it is worth the money. If you are only considering short tube then you are wasting money. I didn't do either so can't give you any opinion just relaying what I learned in my search.