best headers

[94stepside5.7]

what are some good headers that are quality made, give you good power, and are not too expensive? I plan on spending around $350 for headers. Thanks for the help.

[oldred95]

Anything by hedman is good. I still have zero complaints with mine and they were the cheaper painted ones. They are long tubes with 1 5/8 primaries, 3 inch collectors, 1/4 inch flanges, 16 gauge tubes and so on. Been almost three years and I've never had a leak. The key to headers is using a good gasket and retorquing the bolts constantly for the first week or so until you fully crush the gasket.

[Fast305]

what are some good headers that are quality made, give you good power, and are not too expensive? I plan on spending around $350 for headers. Thanks for the help.

DOUG THORLEY TRI-Ys are GREAT.

[oldred95]

DOUG THORLEY TRI-Ys are GREAT.
That may be but for 135 bucks I have long tube headers and extra money to put some bada bing on that thing.

[badkelly]

i have hedmans.

good:
*i spent a little extra and got the ceramic-coated headers, still look good 5-6 years later with maybe a little petechia
*also spent a little extra and got the stage 8 header bolts so they don't back out

bad:
*i had to have the mounting surface machined on the passenger's side because they weren't level
*silly little gaskets that came with them failed, which i replaced with the aluminum (or copper) dead-soft gaskets
*one or two of the bolt holes were super-close to the header tube so that i couldn't get in there properly with a boxed-end wrench (thereby having to rely mostly on the allen-part of the bolt). also had to trim a couple of the stage 8 special washers to fit in the super-close tolerance.

overall, i'm happy with'em, although those little things were a pain until i finally got them straightened out

edit: you can see mine in one of the engine shots in my gallery. that is probably 3-4 years after i installed them

[oldred95]

I used the hedman paper gaskets for two years with no problems. I tightened and retightened them probably a dozen times from the get go and after that I know I never touched them for well over a year. Finally 3 of them backed out on the drivers side and caused a bad leak. Tightened them back up and all was well until I did the head swap and the gaskets tore while taking the headers off. Now I've got some mr. gasket ultra seals with metal in the gasket.

[NorCal_z71]

so you've got the hedman streets kurt? i was lookin at getting a pair, where did you order from? i just saw them on summit my only real concern was the 1/4 flange but if you've got no problems, sounds good to me.

[94stepside5.7]

so Hedman headers it is. Where can I get some Hedmans for a good price?

[77bignasty]

I just put some Hedman Elite headers on my 93C1500 and they fit really tight. They were a pain in the butt to put on. The passenger side rubs the frame and the upper control arms. The driver's side almost does the same thing. The driver's side collector makes it almost impossible to connect your exhaust pipe because of the crossmember. They also don't come with a bung for your O2 sensor. I'm going to contact the company and let them know about this issue. Just a heads up for you.

[94stepside5.7]

i have stainless gibson hedders.....they work nicely and still look great 4 years after i put em on.....the hedders bolted right up to the factory y-pipe....ps: the flanges for the block are like 1/2 in thick :) 350.00 is about what i spent too
Where did you buy them?

[94stepside5.7]

I just put some Hedman Elite headers on my 93C1500 and they fit really tight. They were a pain in the butt to put on. The passenger side rubs the frame and the upper control arms. The driver's side almost does the same thing. The driver's side collector makes it almost impossible to connect your exhaust pipe because of the crossmember. They also don't come with a bung for your O2 sensor. I'm going to contact the company and let them know about this issue. Just a heads up for you.
Thanks for the heads up. How much did you pay for your headers? Is your truck stock height?

[77bignasty]

Thanks for the heads up. How much did you pay for your headers? Is your truck stock height?

No problem. I bought them from Summit Racing for $270. The truck is the stock height and has never been wrecked. I emailed Hedman to let them know about these issues. Oh yeah, be careful with the Gibson or any shorty headers. I just removed a set of Flowtech shorties because of some exhaust issues. Both companies and Summit claim there shorty headers have 2.5" collectors. They all use ball and socket style connections to eliminate gaskets, and they are supposed to bolt to your factory pipes. My factory pipes weren't anywhere close to my Flowtechs. Some people don't have this problem. Anyway, when I measured the "real" collector diameter it was only 1 7/8" wide. That puts 4 primary tubes that are 1.5" merging together and exiting a 1 7/8" pipe. That's ridiculous. I was having a huge restriction issue. I must have changed my mufflers and pipes 4 or 5 times trying to figure out what was going on. It sounded like crap. It sounded like I had 1" pipes or something. Luckily, the Hedmans fixed this problem. They have a true 3" collector, so no restrictions. Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to give you and anyone else thinking of buying headers a heads up. And I don't mean any offense to anyone with Gibson or any shorty headers. They did give me more power, but the long tubes are a heck of a lot better. Maybe you could try some Hooker headers.

[94stepside5.7]

No problem. I bought them from Summit Racing for $270. The truck is the stock height and has never been wrecked. I emailed Hedman to let them know about these issues. Oh yeah, be careful with the Gibson or any shorty headers. I just removed a set of Flowtech shorties because of some exhaust issues. Both companies and Summit claim there shorty headers have 2.5" collectors. They all use ball and socket style connections to eliminate gaskets, and they are supposed to bolt to your factory pipes. My factory pipes weren't anywhere close to my Flowtechs. Some people don't have this problem. Anyway, when I measured the "real" collector diameter it was only 1 7/8" wide. That puts 4 primary tubes that are 1.5" merging together and exiting a 1 7/8" pipe. That's ridiculous. I was having a huge restriction issue. I must have changed my mufflers and pipes 4 or 5 times trying to figure out what was going on. It sounded like crap. It sounded like I had 1" pipes or something. Luckily, the Hedmans fixed this problem. They have a true 3" collector, so no restrictions. Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to give you and anyone else thinking of buying headers a heads up. And I don't mean any offense to anyone with Gibson or any shorty headers. They did give me more power, but the long tubes are a heck of a lot better. Maybe you could try some Hooker headers.
So I should get some long tubes with a 3" collector?

[77bignasty]

You don't really have to. The Hooker's have a 2.5" collector which will produce better torque. Just don't go smaller than that. Another thing is extending the collector length by 10-20". You can buy extensions. The Hedman's have short collectors. This will make more power and better low end. Race cars utilize this and I've seen dyno charts to prove it. I would also recommend utilizing a smooth transitioning pipe from your collectors to your pipes. Flowmaster makes them. Use an x pipe too.

[Loudnfast91]

I have the el-cheapo Summit no name brand long tubes on my 72 c10 and they seem to be holding up just fine. I think I paid $86 for them through summit

[badkelly]

about $450 here.

[SolMan98]

i have stainless gibson hedders.....they work nicely and still look great 4 years after i put em on.....the hedders bolted right up to the factory y-pipe....ps: the flanges for the block are like 1/2 in thick :) 350.00 is about what i spent too

SOunds like the ones I had, $300 to my door off EBay.

[TEE]

Edelbrock only for me :)

[TigerEyz3]

DOUG THORLEY TRI-Ys are GREAT.
I've been very happy with my ceramic Tri-Ys, but I paid more than $300 for 'em, too. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for - I've never had a problem out of my headers.

Regardless of the brand you select, make sure you get thick flanges; good gauge pipe material; and if financially possible, the ceramic coating.

[Pauly]

Hooker 2462 HKR Competition series headers cost around $200, have 1 5/8" primaries 2 1/2" collectors and 16 ga tubing. These are the same headers I have on my truck except mine are ceramic coated. Ceramic coated Hookers are 2462 1HKR(about $350) and the stainless steel version of the same header is 2462 2HKR( about $550).

I have had my Hookers installed for about 8 years now, daily driving even inteh salty Candian winters, there is some crusting of the coating on teh collectors but I shoudl get another 8 years out of them.
The 2462 hkr, 2462 1hkr 2462 and 2hkr come equipped with teh O2 sensor bungs for the TBI trucks. For my Vortec truck I simply welded in 2 O2 sensor bungs in thecollector pipes before the cats. I didnt want to disturb the coating.

Then there is teh SUPER COMPETITION SERIES from Hooker these are pn 2806 HKR painted and 2806 1 hkr for ceramic coated, no stainless version is available. These feature equal len\gth primaries 1 3/4" primaries and 3" collectors. These are a tad big for my mild NA 350, but for a stroker or forced induction truck, these are 1 of the best. They are pricey at $400 for uncoated and $760 for coated.

here are teh 2462 1hkr Comps headers that I use
http://www.pacificp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5814&highlight=comps

Here are teh 2806 1HKR supercomps (5th post from teh top, look how James welded in his OWN O2 sensor bungs, EGR fitting and AIR tubes,e xcellent work esp. for hacking on a brand new set of $800 coated headers)
http://www.pacificp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4461&highlight=comps

More pics of the 2806 supercomps
http://www.pacificp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2415

And 2806 installed
http://www.pacificp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2430&highlight=comps

peace
Hog

[94stepside5.7]

Thanks for the help everyone. I am going to be careful on what headers to get. Pauly, I will be getting the headers you have. Thank you for the info. I plan on getting 2.25" pipes out of the headers and then getting a single 3" exhaust all the way to the tip. I will also have a bullet on the 3" pipe. Will that size pipe work with these headers? and will I gain a lot of torque?

[SmokedOutZ28]

I was looking into pacesetter LT headers for my suburban, they offer 1-5/8 primary tubes with 3'' collectors and have the option for A.I.R & EGR or Just EGR they also have o2 bungs in the collectors which would probably require o2 extensions to reach the collector. They run $363 for painted and about $150 more for the coating through pacesetter but can be picked up from summit for $242+ shipping (painted).

[CHEV4LIFE]

another vote for hedman, i pad around 250 shipped, they were a tight fit to get on but defiently worth it

[mark2]

really like the edelbrock tricoat truck shorties.