LS1S10

Well, its 3 am and i just now finished up the header install i started at about 6:30 pm. However i took a hour break for dinner it still took for freakin ever. I gotta say this though...i was sorta dissapointed with the headers. Well to a point anyway....i got them for $675 shipped with the optional ceramic coating from TByrne because they were on his garage sale special.

Well the first thing i noticed bad was the EGR tube coming out of the headers wasn't even tapped for the stock bolts. And the instructions clearly say to use the stock bolts. Well I didn't have the right size tap so i decided to just drill out the holes a little and use some bolts with nuts to hold the EGR tube on there.

Next thing that went wrong was when i tried to put the dipstick back on the brace that holds the dipstick to the head had to be trimmed to bolt back up because of the header flange. I also had to grind the bolt down so it would thread in the head and clear the flange. This was no biggy though, but it wasn't even mentioned in the instructions.

Now, in the instructions it says to take a sawz-all and cut the pipe infront of the cat at the weld....ok, no biggy. I did it perfect on both sides, and i put the small sections of pipe it comes with in place and ran them up finger tight so i could posistion them. Now let me tell ya, holdthing that y-pipe in place to line them up with the collectors was something a acrobat would have trouble doing. I found the best method was to lie on my back and use both feet spread out holding both sides to make sure the pipes were turned right to line up good enough to weld.

Here's where my dissapointment really set in. The drivers side lined up perfectly with where i had cut just like the instructions had told me to. The passenger side was an entirely different story though, there was probably almost a one inch gap inbetween the down pipe and the cat. The best positioning i could do was to close this gap up to almost a 1/4 inch but it really REALLY put the exhaust system in a bind and i still had to fill a good amount of gap with weld. And to get it best lined up as i could, the donut gasket was almost completely out on one side.

After all this, i go to bolt up the rear flange on the y-pipe back up to my exhaust. And because of the way i had to weld the passenger side cat, the y-pipe was now pointing up and to the left so it wouldnt mate flat with the flange that was on the rear half of the exhaust system. So i tried to pull it back together well enough to seal but it wouldn't quite do it and in return the damn stud snapped off. So now i got a big *** exhaust leak right behind the y-pipe before my muff.

Another dissapointment......i don't know if its because i've only got a Predator tune or what. But guys, i dont feel a SOTP difference between the headers and the stock manifolds. In fact, call me crazy but it almost seems like i lost some power I went to a hill that i normally have to hold the pedal almost on the floor while in OD to hold 60 mph without downshifting, and in almost exactly the same place it went below 60 and downshifted to 3rd like usual. I SERIOUSLY hope that maybe a Nelson tune or something can take better advantage over the headers....or im seriously gonna be pissed on farting away $675 bucks on something that i can't even tell a difference with.

I'm going to the exhaust shop tomorrow to see about fixing the leak, but im thinking about just ripping my system out and just putting a single chamber flow with a dump on it on the 3" pipe that comes outta the Y. The current setup is almost too freakin quiet for my liking. Right now i got a single in, dual out magnaflow with 3" pipes and 4" tips and the ***** so heavy it keeps breaking the rear hangers whenever i go down a bumpy farm road.

Other than the above, the quality of the headers was pretty good. The header flange that mates to the head is SUPER thick and the headers are just made all around good. I dont like those 2 bolt stock type connections though, tightening them was a BIG pain in the *** because of the recess you couldn't hold a wrench on one side so you have to use two ratchets. Plus the donut gaskets did there job and sealed up even though the passenger side was at a flaky angle....but i think a regular header style 3 bolt flange would have done better. If it wasn't for the great warranty the TOG offers, i would almost regret not getting the AS&M's.

Anybody else with TOG's wanna comment on anything, if you had to do the same stuff or what not. And why am i not seeing any gains over the stock manifolds. I thought you should see almost 25 hp increase over the stock manifolds on a stock 5.3? With 25 extra hp i believe i would have felt a SOTP difference. Becuase it was so late i didn't get a chance to power brake it to see if i gained any low end over stock....but i'll check that tomorrow. Just thought i would inform you guys of my difficulties with the TOG's........later.

Oh and sorry for the novel......i kinda got detailed so you guys would know about what i had to do. BTW i dont know if this would have anything to do with me having problems but the instructions said Tahoe, Suburban, Escalade, and H2 hummer. I dont think it would make a difference because aren't all the exhaust systems the same on the SUV's and trucks?

Tokez420

dam that was long......but i think that exhuast leak is KILLING your gains

LS1S10

Even with the exhaust leak being so far back? I usually always thought that exhaust leaks before the cats where usually responsible for lost power and that you couldn't even tell it when there behind the cats.

The leaks pretty bad, basically you can see about a 1/8" gap around half the pipe where the y-pipe connects to the cat-back....and you can deffinitely hear it. Right now my truck sounds like total *** Does anyone else think this is why im not feeling any gains? It just doesn't seem to me like it shouldn't effect it, as free flowing as my system is. I can barely feel any exhaust gas coming out of the leak at idle.....so theres hardly any back pressure on the system.

L-EATER

iTrader: (2)

I didn't really notice any SOTP when I put on my ASM's and I am supercharged. They helped about .15 at the track but not enough to feel. You will have to go to the track or a dyno to see any gains.

Deckhand

iTrader: (1)

I could notice with my ASM's the midrange-topend pull

Kano

iTrader: (3)

I gained 2 tenths in the 1/8 but I also changed my flowmaster to 2 magnaflows

marc_w

Wow, sorry about the problems.

These here are some of the reasons why I still haven't done headers. It seems like every install is different.

Thanks for sharing your experiences though - they're things we'll take note of (and be ready for) when others tackle this.

marc_w

Also, I though a lot of people out there were noticing good SOTP gains with headers... Am I wrong?

LS1S10

I've heard the same thing, im hoping that maybe this exhaust leak does it.....if not. Well then i don't know what to say.

LS1S10

Im now starting to think that maybe it was the leak afterall. I just finished hacking the exhaust system off my truck and i took it out for a drive straight piped and it feels even slower than before. I had to cut the pipe infront of the second crossmember thats infront of the gas tank because of the new angle of everything, i couldnt get the flange to bolt up because the pipe was hitting that crossmember.

I ordered a single chamber flow overnight air, so i hope its going to be here early tomorrow so i can take it to the exhaust shop and have it rebent and dumped before the axle. The straight pipe sounds like TOTAL *** even with the cats still on.....i dont see how people can actually like the way it sounds. Its alright at anything over 3K rpm....but below that it just sounds like an old *** junker thats dragged the muffler off. This trip to Savannah is really fkn with me time wise.