Right now, I have a set of Borla stainless steel 4 into 1 headers I purchaced through then SVO back in March 1996. I understand Borla no longer sells these, and I'm wanting to try a different brand of EFI460 headers. I'm leaning towards L&L products, but I've heard Banks EFI 460 headers are they ones to get.....no more gasket problems(which was a problem with the current headers I have).

 

I have the L&L headers and they are great. They fit good, and I have had no leaks. The Banks are also good headers but they cost about twice as much as the L&L's.

 

Thanks. I was leaning towards those L&L headers. The Borlas were good, but I ended up replacing 4 gaskets since I bought them in '96. They weren't cheap, either. I'll have to find the 1996 SVO catalog. I think the Borlas cost around $600. I guess I shouldn't complain, they've lasted almost 8 years, but since they stopped making them, I figure to try a different set.

 

I have set of Gibson Tri-y's and love em. Never had to retighten the bolts (although I checked). They fit great, look great, and snapped up my throttle response off the line quite a bit.

 

I have the Banks headers, They were expensive, but they do their job well. Everything bolted up like factory including the egr tube.
Hope that helps.

'97 f250 shortbed crew 4x e4od

TH

 

Hi guy's l&l headers and gibsons headers ect. do these headers bolt to the factory y pipe? or do you have to get a custom exaust made up? As far as my research shows only banks will bolt up up directly. My next question is for therdt are they worth the big coin? I have the bank's catalog and I've worn out the page with the headers on them I make up my mind to order them then do the math and get all depressed and bail (this hapens about twice a weak!) my next question is are they worth the horse power/torque gains? As far as I could find no one out there even makes a true blot up header exept for banks (sombody plese prove me wrong...regards Domenico

 

My Gibson bolted right up, beautifully too. You have to swazall off the stock pipe 3 inches before the cat, and gibson supplies a new y-pipe that clamps over the original exhaust. You don't want to re-use the original y-pipe with new headers. The Gibson one is HUGE. Instead of clamping it though, I took it to my local muffler shop and they welded the overlap together for 5 bucks. Everything else under the hood bolted up to the headers better than the OEM stuff.

 

rabidranger,
Im in the same perdicament as Domenico. On the gibson headers did you break any header bolts when you removed the stock manifolds? A couple of months ago FourWheeler had an article on installing the Banks headers on a 460 and they said that the factory header bolts are notorious for breaking on our engines. They broke five on the project truck and it was done at the Banks shop. Now, Im not scared of getting my hands dirty but welding on bolt heads to broken studs to facilitate extraxtion is a little beyond my ability and I don't want to get 75% of the way thru disassembley of the stock stuff and discover that I have to put it all back together and take it to a shop to have it done right. Any input you may have on the install process would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

I did break off one stud. Of course it was the last one closest to the fire wall on the passenger side! There were lotsa 4 letter words. Since I snapped off the head, the manifold came right off. So if you snap one, keep going till they are all broke or out and then go back later to attack em. I ended up grinding 2 flats on it, hit it about 10 different times with PB BLaster and used a 6" pipe wrench and it came out. That whole ordeal set me back about 2 hours. I dunno about welding new heads onto the studs, if you had the equipment to do it, maybe, but us shade-tree's have to use other methods. I have heard about using a torch to heat things up and let cool them down and repeat a few times to break them free. Don't sweat it. There will be road-blocks to any work you do on your truck, it's how you overcome them that makes you feel all that much better when all is said and done. Check out my D60 swap in my gallery, now that was a BATTLE!

 

I too had the passenger side rear manifold bolt break off. The L&L headers will need to have a new exhaust system made, at least to connect it to the stock setup. If you plan on redoing the whole system this is not a big deal.

 

The only reson I'm worried is that I did things backwards (replaced all the exhaust from the tail pipe to y pipe first ) in hindsight should of done the headers first. Great pic's of the d 60 conversion I did mine last year and thought it was cake walk. (once in a while things go right) Rabidranger what do you think about the spring hanger converson kit worth the money?. P.S shure would like to see some pic's of the gibson headers in place. regards Domenico.....

 

rabidranger , where did you purchase your Spring Hanger Kit and do u know if they also make one that will fit a 77 f250 , 4x4?????thanks, for your time , s.kuteman

 

rabidranger,
Looks to me like gibson is the answer. I will place my order soon. Thanks for the advise, I think I will try to take them out while the engine is hot. Now tell me about this "custom k&n fipk" of yours. Kevin

 

Wow all, thanks for the interest in my truck. The spring shackle reversla kit I put in the front was $299 from sky-manufacturing.com. I need to send them a stern letter though. The shorted me 6 bolts and nuts, and the kit came with no instructions. Took a good hour or two so of trial and error test fitting to get things right. I am very impressed with the quality of the parts though, very beefy. I don't know about a 77 year kit though, you would have to ask them, offroadunlimited.com has one as well, the was a frame change somewhere along the lines and the kit differs. I believe the sky kit only fits 92-97 though. I will see if I can jamb my squash into the engine compartment and snap some pics this week for you. The "custom" K&N kit is nothing more than a 6"x12" cylindrical K&N filter I made a few aluminum discs up for. The drilled the disc out, made a aluminum tube and bolted the existing air intake pipes to it. It now sits exactly where the air box used to. That mod really snapped up my throttle response. Much more noticable off the line. Although after sitting in traffic on a hot summer day being under the hood and drawing in hot air off the header has left me searching for ideas to present cold air to it...

 

Hi guy's, did a litle more research on gibson / banks headers, From what I found out the gibson header is considerd a "shorty header" compared to banks wich is a "full length header" as far as most torque spec show full length headers produce more torque at lower rpm (makes sensese to me) I guess my question is is worth paying the extra coin for the banks. I'm looking at $300.00 differance (gibsons headers being the cheaper of the two) opinions anyone ?..... regards Domenico..