What is involved in installing shorty headers on a 1999 4wd 5.3? Do I need to look for any kind in particular?

 

Long tubes are the way to go, you won't see your money's worth out of shorties...

 

agreed. waste of money, IMHO

save that money, and look in the classified section on here.. you can generally find LT headers for around 300ish used.. Pacesetter's arent much more new for painted ones

 

Long tubes wayyyyy better the only down fall is the whole exhaust system has to be re done, whether you Y-Pipe/ bolt kit exhaust or have a shop re do it.

I bought my Pacesetter long tubes, high flow cats, x pipe, mufflers for $700 online. Installed the headers my self one weekend and drove it with open headers for a day till the muffler shop opened up. Stupid loud was cool for a day that's about it haha

Long tubes will most likely need a custom tune. My fuel ratios were all jacked up after the install until I got it re tuned.

If you are on a budget and never plan on doing anything else besides exhaust, CAI, progamer...shortys would be a fine choice.

You will notice more tq/hp from shorties just not as much from longtubes.
Most shorty headers are direct replacements of stock manifolds and dont need a tune. Just be careful to not strip the bolts from the stock exhaust pipe to the manifold. If you do strip them get the grinder out and have fun -____-

 

Trust me I went with shorties (in my sig) and honestly felt no difference at all, go with the long tubes , that's next on my list , I didn't know you'd need a tune after you install the long tubes though so I don't know on that part

 

I think it was b/c I drove it for a day without the back two o2 sensors hooked up so the truck wasn't reading air to fuel ratios properly. Then once the new exhaust system was on I could tell my mpgs had dropped and the truck would idle real rough.

My tunner was saying the injectors were 25% open at idle when they should be around 8-15%. He set mine for 12%

CAI,UND,efans stock manifolds 2.25 true duals stock tune
235rwhp 279rwtq

shorties 2.25 true dual with tune
267rwhp 321rwtq

Long tubes 3" true dual with x pipe and new tune
281rwhp 336 rwtq

As you can see stock tune/ manifolds compared to shorties with tune gained 32hp 42tq manly due to the tune, but the shorties did help some.

A lot of people say you loose tq going from 2.5" to 3" which is probably true but my stock 5.3L is a factory freak with my set up and I wanted it as loud as possible lol

This is just kinda an idea for you what difference I experienced between the two exhaust set ups. IN MY OPINION do what everybody says and go the longtube route. It made me sick when I decided to do longtubes and I already had $400 in shorties. Do it once do it right Longtubes

 

If I had the funds I would love to dyno test the rocker arms and see how much they helped. Feels like I put a 1 step up cam from stock with them.

Unfortunately im in the process of buying cam parts to do a cam swap, so I'm saving my money for 1 final dyno tune.

 

Yea, LT's are the way to go. I originally bought some shorties that were advertised as 1 3/4". When they arrived, they measured 1 5/8. I sent them back. The bargain headers are getting to be better quality. I bought OBX's this summer for my 6.2 and so far they are working good. They are actually 1 3/4" for $700.00 shipped. And they sound good with the stock catback as well. Although, the 6.2 is obviously larger than the 5.3.

 

I installed JBA titanium ceramics mostly due to a vibration that I tracked to the stock manifolds... It changed the tune of my catback significantly and I can feel the torque down a little lower. Since then I cammed my truck, had it tuned and did a few other things and I think that if you're in an emissions required area or have a 4x4 and don't want to spend a lot of effort they're a decent improvement. I would suggest other mods be done first though.

 

Be careful with the back bolts. The original bolts tend to snap off in the heads on gen 3s. Maybe spray them the night before with a penetrating product.