well guys im going to be ordering a dyno max exhaust for my truck and im looking for headers to order with it... now i dont need any of that fancy coating hell if i get them i will prolly put that 1000 degree temp paint on them.... anyway im looking for a cheeper set that give good gains such as summit racing headers... but all i can find is shorty headers and i would rather go with the long tube. is there any big difference between the 2... any sugestions on a 2-300 header... again it could be non finished.. looks really arnt important to me right now... only on the outside

 

unless youre looking to replace the whole exhaust system like a full dual system (custom work) go with the shorties. they will more than surfice. trust me it aint worth the hastle. i got a set of flowtech who is owned by holley for around $290 from summit.

 

depends what your options on what your truck is... last time i knew there wasnt a set of long tubes for a 4X4..so if you have a 4X4 your gonna have to stick with shorties...if you have a 2by then go for some long tubes...itll be worth the hassel....

i got the edelbrock shorties with the titech coating and they are rusting after 4 months (under my thread about the rusting headers) im EXTREMELY happy with the performance but the apperence sucks..be carefull with that high temp paint... i have never really heard of that paint holding up for a long enough ttime to be worth wild... or any type of high temp paint for that matter..maybe somebody has better info on that...

the coating is actually worth it when it works right...it acts as a header wrap ... keeping under hood temps down witch will be important to keep the clear coat and paint coat of the hood from flaking off...

 

oh one more thing..

make sure the flanges are thick... anything type of header with a mounting flange thats 3/8 inch thick or thicker will be great... this helps in keeping the true form of the mating surface during rappid heat up and cool downs witch tends to warp the flanges when not thick enough and itll be hard to keep a set of gaskets from blowing

 

i have a 4x4..... so shorty's is pritty much my only option?

 

get the gibsons... they are working pretty good for me after over 1 year of use. still going strong...

 

there was rumor of a company building long tubes for our 2gen 4X4's but i havnt heard any updates..i think zeek knows something about them.... but that was A LONG time ago and still nothing about it... its hard to fit longtubes around axles and stuff and still ahve them effecient enough ...

 

I bought a set of Summit shorty headers. When they showed up, they ended up being Pacesetter headers in a Summit box. The Pacesetters are junk!!!!

1st They do not have a dimple to allow enough space to turn the nut on the back side of the twin ports on the drivers side. The hard side to work with. I finally convinced a rep from pacesetter to get a set out of a box and look at them while I called him back. He was supprised there was not a dimple to allow for nut/bolt clearance. He unofficially recomended making a dimple with a piece of wood and a hammer. Also the directions will not tell you about cutting the same stud for clearance either. So after a half a days ordeal they are on. By the way, the brake lines, booster and stearing will become your enemy.

2nd They did not have a good weld/gasket surface and leaked. Didn't realize this until a several weeks of gasket changes and retightening later, thinking it was my work that was the problem. Called Summit and they paid the shipping and sent another set.

3rd New set installed and guess what, the drivers side leaks this time. @#*!@#*!! Well it's got to be me or the gasket this time. It can't be another set that was bad. Wrong This set of gaskets didn't look as nice as the first set, so I went and bought a good set. Still leaks. After a several months listening to the leak, retightening and changing gaskets, getting ticked off and parking the truck, I went and got a better set and doubled them. still leaks. I pulled them out and there was day light between the flange and the back of the front tube. Did I mention that you would really hate the brake lines. I could tell a small improvement in power, which was all I was expecting. Finally I took the factory flanges to the machine shop, had them surfaced, and $65 later they are back on the truck. Don't forget about the stud that had to be cut for clearance. Now it had to be removed and replaced with a new stud. More fun.... Also had to cut and weld an open wrench at an angle to tighten the same bolt.

$150.00 + handling
$ 65.00 Manifold surfacing
$ ???? 4 different gasket sets
$ 2.00 Manifold bolt
Countless hours

After all the agravation, time, scraped knucles on brake lines, harrassment from your buddies, and a few bucks, I am running stock manifolds and have a set of Summitracing/Pacesetter headers in a box that I would not give away unless I really did not like you...........

 

the install of the gibsons was not that bad. I did have to remove all of the existing studs and use the supplied bolts for the install.

one thing i did run into though was when I put the r/t heads on, the end bolts go into the water jackets so I ended up putting studs on all 4 corners to prevent leakage. once that was done, i've had no problems with the gibsons at all.

I used the Napa exhaust manifold gaskets (header gaskets) and they seem to work pretty good.

 

i like the edelbrock shorties... really big improvment in the butt dyno... im currently contacting edelbrock b/c after 4months they are starting to rust .. havnt heard anything back from them yet