Summit racing Headers
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Summit racing Headers
The exhaust manifolds on my 302 FI are cracked. I'm weighing stock replacement versus a Summit racing header system . The Summit racing kit is actually a bit cheaper than stock replacements and comes with all gaskets and hardware. Anyone have any experience with these headers? Quality? How loud? any performance gains - I'll keep the rest of the exhaust stock.
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Joined: Jun 2004
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I would get the Summit shorties if I were in your situation especially for the price. But again you get what you pay for and dont expect to see much difference in sound or power on the stock exhaust. The headers will not make the truck exhaust louder, but will change the exhaust note a bit and there are slight power improvements to be made (just dont expect night and day differences).
Ive got a set of ceramic coated BBK shorties on my 94 302 and no muffler. Even without the muffler the truck is still rather quiet when light on the gas due to the two catalytic converters. It sounds very good at WOT. I ran into the problem of my headers not fitting into the y pipe flared ends (the BBKs have a larger collector than stock) and i had to have an exhaust shop modify the y-pipe for them to fit. When all was said and done, I should have saved for long tubes and a custom exhaust. Ive read that the Summits fit pretty well and are a good buy for the money so you should be ok there. Also a word of advice, ditch the paper gaskets that come with the Summit headers and invest 30-40 bucks more in a crushable copper or aluminum set. The paper ones will blow out on you (took 2 months for me). You do not want to have to take the headers off and replace, your knuckles will not like you.
Ive got a set of ceramic coated BBK shorties on my 94 302 and no muffler. Even without the muffler the truck is still rather quiet when light on the gas due to the two catalytic converters. It sounds very good at WOT. I ran into the problem of my headers not fitting into the y pipe flared ends (the BBKs have a larger collector than stock) and i had to have an exhaust shop modify the y-pipe for them to fit. When all was said and done, I should have saved for long tubes and a custom exhaust. Ive read that the Summits fit pretty well and are a good buy for the money so you should be ok there. Also a word of advice, ditch the paper gaskets that come with the Summit headers and invest 30-40 bucks more in a crushable copper or aluminum set. The paper ones will blow out on you (took 2 months for me). You do not want to have to take the headers off and replace, your knuckles will not like you.
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Joined: Jun 2003
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From: Calhoun GA
Overall, they are a good value and bolt right in place of the stock manifolds.
A couple notes with the Summit headers. The coating on them is not a high temp type. If you feel froggy, you can strip and shoot them with a coating made for a high temp application. The only other issue I've noticed is the bolts do not stay tight and will eventually cause the gasket to fail, literally within a couple of months. I installed locking header bolts on the last two sets I did (one of them being my 01), with the supplied paper gaskets, and no problems thus far.
A couple notes with the Summit headers. The coating on them is not a high temp type. If you feel froggy, you can strip and shoot them with a coating made for a high temp application. The only other issue I've noticed is the bolts do not stay tight and will eventually cause the gasket to fail, literally within a couple of months. I installed locking header bolts on the last two sets I did (one of them being my 01), with the supplied paper gaskets, and no problems thus far.
