I've had the ~$150 Ebay headers in my truck for a few months now, thought I'd share how they are doing.

So far the gaskets and hardware have held up. The headers picked up a goldish color with some blue, but no rust. No leaks.

The install was actually not that bad. Pull the inner fenderwells, passenger shock tower, loosen y-pipe, and remove front wheels. Removing the stock manifolds was a piece of cake for me. There are 2 or 3 bolts on each side that are a real pain to install, but otherwise it was pretty straightforward. I put some heatshield tape on the passenger side brake hard line. It's pretty close right behind the shock tower.

Under 2000 RPM no change, or a slight loss, haven't decided and it's too late to tell for sure. Over 3000 pretty significant change. 2000-3000 is better but not by much. Sounds pretty good to my ears through a Gibson CAT back. Throatier, a tad louder.

I use a Superchips 1715 on performance tune most of the time with 91 octane. Volant intake.

If I can keep my foot off the gas, I think it was worth 1mpg or so. The first tank after I installed them I only got 8mpg though Best MPG to date has been 15.5mpg calculated.

I went camping with my ~5000lb trailer and a fully loaded truck and it towed as well or better than stock depending on what gear I was in. It kicks butt out of OD.

I've thought about adding a updated MAF, if I thought it'd help. Anyone have a similar setup to mine that wants to share? I've heard a throttle body upgrade hurts towing performance, any thoughts?

Eric

 

Cool, I have some auction headers also that have worked great for many miles now.

 

Good to hear I have been thinking about getting some of those Ebay headers as well. Maybe now I will. thanks for the update.