Iwas looking at headers on summit racing and i am trying to pick a decent low buck solution (college student) summit shorties are at a good price and i was looking at the pace setter long tubes also. has anyone used these before? i'm planning on going three inch single exhaust (cat and flowmaster 44 muffler) going out in front of the rear tire to keep it simple. i have a 2001 1500 4x4 auto 5.8L. this truck is a daily driver but is used occasionally to tow/work and go hunting/trail riding.

 

I have a very similar setup to what you propose, but exiting at stock location. I love it.

Summit shorties, if I remember correctly, are relabeled and repriced Pacesetter shorties. Bad choice IMO. Headers are one of those things that you should get done right the first time or not at all. Someone correct me if I'm mistaken on the brand stuff.

I personally think its not worth the trouble. I am sticking with my stock manifolds for now.

I've heard some good things and some bad about Pacesetters longtubes, but 95% bad about their shorties.

 

Don't bother with headers until ou've done a little more to the truck. If you haven't increase the amount of air you can take into the engine, you're not going to outflow the stock cast iron exhaust manifolds and you'll get very negligible gains from any headers.

That being said, the cheapest shorties I've heard good things about are the edelbrock ceramic coated headers.

 

+1 on that, but if your going to put dual exhaust on the truck and want to do it right the first time then I say go for it. I have dual exhause on my truck, but if I did alot of other mods thenI would put long tube headers, with true duals and bigger tubing.

 

Yeah, definitely save up a little more and get a quality set. I just recently got a set of the Edelbrock Ceramic Shorties and they are very nice; very high quality. Headers give so many people such trouble, you'd definitely save in the long run to just invest in some nice ones and get them done right than to try and get off cheap now.

 

+1 on that many people complain that eventually they rust, but the ceramic coated ones won't

 

having it exit infront of the rear tire isnt as simple as it seams. You have a very limited space to fit everything in there. If your going to have a Y pipe its more do-able. If you want dual and a crossover tube or x and you have to have cats, youll need to get creative.

headers is the first step twards performance, reguardless of what some think.
To me there is only one kind of header. Thats the "longtube" header. Shorty headers are only made for space restrictions and turbo'd apps. It boggles me as to why anyone gets them if they dont fall into those catigories.

 

this isn't isn't going be a crazy all-out bogging truck or anything like that. eventualy 3 inch lift an 35's or 36's with 4.55;s and maybe an auburn in the back.
i've had duals on other trucks but i think i'm just going to keep it simple, you can get a single to sound good too. i see that pacesetter has a ceramic coated version of their long tubes, pricier for sure. what kind of complaints have you heard about them? are there any other manfacturers with long tubes? there looks to be plenty of room to go out in front of the rear tire, just gotta look at decent 3 inch convertors too.
i just put in a k&n replacement filter about a month ago, in a few monthes it will be replaced with an entire kit (brute force or fipk), i've been looking at throttle bodies and rockers too.

 

I havent had any issues with my ceramic pacesetters. They are just finishing melting off all the plastic and rubber goop that was dripped on them during the fire I had, and are starting to look like they did before that.

 

lol shorty headers.