Any experience with these header brands?

**LS1nterceptor** · 08-31-2008, 01:36 PM

I've been wanting to put new exhaust on my car and have been checking out different headers. I would like chrome/stainless steel/jetcoated but unfortunately with most brands my budget will limit me to painted headers if I go with brands like Pacesetter or Hooker. I found these different headers on Ebay and was wondering if anyone had any experience with any of them?

Both have 1&3/4" primaries and 3" collectors. Both dealers have great feedback ratings and the headers look good but I'd like some actual experience with them.

I'm sure this has been asked before but when I tried a search for header information there was so much that it was overwhelming and I could not find anything about these headers specifically.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...m=270269876640

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...m=160277075167

**ls1camino** · 08-31-2008, 03:06 PM

Talk to Spaz

**LS1nterceptor** · 08-31-2008, 06:24 PM

Originally Posted by ls1camino

Talk to Spaz

I know who Spaz is, but I'm new here so I have no idea what you're talking about. Is it safe to assume that he had a less than good experience with them?

**01ws6er** · 08-31-2008, 06:59 PM

I'm gonna say NO on the 1st link because they are not the same ones that I have. The 02 bungs are on the outside of the collectors, which is not right.

2nd link looks just like the ones I bought, but from a different seller. Look man, all kinds of people are gonna tell you all sorts of things about these headers, and how horrible they are, but I've had mine on my car for 5 months now and have had no problems so far. Again, if you want to keep the air and egr you will have to modify the tubes for it (I opted to get rid of it) and you may or may not have to drop your drivers side collector 1/4 to 1/2" I did so on my set and it turned out that I didn't need to, and my buddy did not on his t/a and his exhaust shop just tweaked the tubing on his exhaust.

I dunno man, it's gonna be up to you in the end, but to ease some of your concerns mine are great, and so are the set my friend has. For the difference in price it was worth a shot for me, and so far it has panned out well...

**LS1nterceptor** · 08-31-2008, 07:43 PM

Crap, I didn't even notice the O2 bungs being on the wrong side. You're right, that ain't right. But the ones in the second link look good.

What did you have to do to your EGR tubing to make it fit? Just bend it slightly? And what do you mean when you say "air" and EGR? I haven't looked all the closely yet, but you don't mean the air conditioner do you? EGR isn't that big of a deal. I'll keep it if it isn't too difficult but I'll cap off the EGR adapter on the header if it's too much of a pain. But the air conditioner has to stay. So I will do whatever I have to to keep it.

Exactly how much trouble was it for you to get these to work? Are they going to be significantly harder to install than say Pacesetters? Because if they are, I will probably end up getting Pacesetters, I'll just have to go with the painted ones instead of the jetcoated ones.

For the record, I will be doing everything along with a friend in a home garage. I try not to have people do my work for me and I can't afford it most of the time.

Also, what y-pipe did you use with these? Did these fit it well?

Edited to add: I just noticed that Hedman, Flowtech, and Hooker Super Comps have their O2 bungs mounted on the outside too. How do you keep the O2 wires from burning on the headers if you have to run the wire around the header?

**01ws6er** · 08-31-2008, 08:31 PM

Originally Posted by LS1nterceptor

Crap, I didn't even notice the O2 bungs being on the wrong side. You're right, that ain't right. But the ones in the second link look good.

What did you have to do to your EGR tubing to make it fit? Just bend it slightly? And what do you mean when you say "air" and EGR? I haven't looked all the closely yet, but you don't mean the air conditioner do you? EGR isn't that big of a deal. I'll keep it if it isn't too difficult but I'll cap off the EGR adapter on the header if it's too much of a pain. But the air conditioner has to stay. So I will do whatever I have to to keep it.

Exactly how much trouble was it for you to get these to work? Are they going to be significantly harder to install than say Pacesetters? Because if they are, I will probably end up getting Pacesetters, I'll just have to go with the painted ones instead of the jetcoated ones.

For the record, I will be doing everything along with a friend in a home garage. I try not to have people do my work for me and I can't afford it most of the time.

Also, what y-pipe did you use with these? Did these fit it well?

By air tubes I mean the air pump. There are 2 tubes (1 on each manifold) that pump air back into the exhaust system upon startup to reduce emissions. You will have to modify the fitting on the header, or modify the air tube to fit. Mine are now gone lol. The EGR fitting on the headers are also not in the correct location, so again, you have to either modify either or, or get rid of it (I don't have EGR on my car as it is a 2001 and has the LS6 intake). You DO NOT have to touch the air conditioning lol!!!

I have never installed Pacesetter, so I could not compare first hand, but I do recall Eagle saying that he had to slightly bang out his firewall to get his Pacesetters to fit, and I had to do the same with my set of Ebay's (my friend did not...). Otherwise, fitment was pretty easy. What took me so long was getting the old y-pipe, cats, and manifolds out!

Make sure you can either afford a y-pipe or some sort of exhaust setup as well, because the stock y-pipe will not fit!

**xzaero0** · 08-31-2008, 09:42 PM

Painted headers usually dont stay painted too long after they are on. Between the heat and the elements the paint is usually mostly gone in a year or so, then the headers rust and pit really badly. If your car is a DD/ street car, its prolly not so bad with the weather and salt on the roads in Texas but some where, like here with salt and snow and rain in between track times the paint just wont last. Then you will end up spending more money in a few months or so to get them jet hot coated or painted again.

Seriously look into a set of stainless steel headers. Depending on what you are planning on doing with the car you may be able to pick up a good set of headers cheap if you know where to look or wait till someone wants to upgrade and then get them for cheap. SS wont rust and will out live the car itself. Save up if you have to but do it right the first time and you wont have to worry about doing it right the second time around.

I already played the "wrong header game", and it sucks to throw away money you could use on another mod.

**ls1camino** · 09-01-2008, 05:54 AM

Originally Posted by LS1nterceptor

I know who Spaz is, but I'm new here so I have no idea what you're talking about. Is it safe to assume that he had a less than good experience with them?

He bought headers off of eBay and I don't think he had a problem with them, was just a joke

**INMY01TA** · 09-01-2008, 07:13 AM

I wouldn't buy the headers in either of those links. I bought headers 2 years ago off bay, lots of people did. These are not the same ones. These seem like cheap copies of the cheap ebay copies from yesteryear. If you do get em be prepared for some modding to em and be prepared to have a custom y pipe made. I had a custom y made for mine, don't assume a Hooker or Pacestter y will fit. I was told the Texas Speed y would fit my headers and it didn't even come close. I would just spend the $400 for some ceramic coated Pacestters or if you want stainless I'd go with these, they are the same people that made the original ebay version everyone used but they have been improved. Now have merge collectors, no air fittings (nice) and the driverside collector has been reangled. Also comes with their own stainless y pipe. They are only sold on LS1tech.