I was thinking about putting headers on my truck…and all I hear is the nightmares about getting the old manifolds off….what do y’all think….yeh or nah…..

An up date on Big Blue....New Paint...new rims & tires...New paint under carriage.....new stereo...Pioneer...Sony 800watt amp & Infinity subwoofer & door speakers.....2018 project....SF

 

Mine were rusty and I thought each one would break but they came out. Now the other truck has 4 broken bolts so I'm not to eager to start on that lol

 

If your truck has always been in North Carolina, I'd go for it. NC is a southern state and rust isn't typically an issue there. I'd soak the exhaust fasteners with plenty of PB Blaster and let it sit for a day or so and then remove the manifolds to swap on the headers. I'm running a pair of JBA coated shorty headers that bolt-up to the stock exhaust pipes. The coating works well to keep the underhood temperatures down.

 

I ran shorty headers for years.
I cut the end off a wrench and turned it 45ş then welded it back on and bent the box end straight so I could get to a couple of the bolts behind the big rear bend in the pipes.
I did not enjoy trying to get to the rear spark plugs because of the rear bend in the pipes.
I pulled those headers off twice to weld a crack at the flange back together.
I pulled them off a couple years ago and put the stock manifolds back on when I put my 4th set of spark plug wires on due to the insulation on the rears being damaged by heat.
I didn't really notice a difference in power after going back to stock.

If you end up doing it you should hit the bolts with some spray (AeroKroil or CRC Knock'er Loose) and give the bolt heads a few taps with a wrench then let them sit for a little bit and do it again right before taking them off. I didn't have any issues taking the originals out. I used grade 8 bolts for the headers and they came off without a fuss or any spray three different times.

 

From my experience I had no issues putting long tubes on. I got the Chinese longtube and y pipe kit from eBay roughly $300. My old manifolds came off without any issues. Keep in line my engine was a used unknown I bought from a guy that had it sitting god knows where for 2 years. Pulled old manifolds off. All bolts came out easy? And there were no gaskets under the manifold. Believe it or not. But it never had an exhaust leak the whole time I ran it. Anyways. Passenger head I had to beat in a tube a little to clear frame rail. Remove brake booster and the driver side slid in pretty easy. Then from there it was just putting all the bolts in. If you do buy the eBay kit. Do yourself a favor and go buy a good set of edlebrock header gaskets roughly $50 and some Alan head bolts. The bolts that come with it are the wrong size and gaskets are like cardboard. Other then that it was worth it. I think they are 1 7/8 primary to 3in collector. The y pipe is a full 3in system that us out behind the transfer case. I paired with a flowmaster flow fx with 2.5 duals and 4in tips. Sounds amazing. No clap to it. No cats either btw. Used a spark plug fouler on rear o2 sensor to truck the pcm so no check engine light

 

Saw your post and wanted to know if you remember what type plug fouler and if you had to modify it at all?

 

I think it's an 18mm anti-fouler.