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Some photos of the headers, don't mind the messy shelf and room.
Did my knock sensor today. Turned the truck on no immediate check engine light so I guess that is good lol. Sounds fine really but probably over analyzing cause it sounds a little strange.
Headers, gauge, new plugs and wires, and a new tune later and the truck is running and is fun as ****. I posted a link to the video on my tuning thread for the headers if you want to hear it and haven't already. After swapping plug wires the truck does not hesitate to start now which is pretty surprising, didn't think that would ever get fixed. I'm patiently waiting to see what kind of MPG I will be getting though with the new parts. Have a trip down to Austin in 2 weeks that I will drive the truck down and back but after that it will sit for a while. Sister is leaving to college and that means I get to drive a more fuel efficient vehicle for a month or two. Anyways here is my review on the SE headers....
SPEED ENGINEERING HEADERS REVIEW Your mileage may vary First Impressions: First impressions opening the box was wow these things look good. Great welds, clean and packaged nicely. When trying to fit everything together for the first time some of the pipes would not slip on properly, which is expected sometimes you need to sand them down a bit to get them to go on right so that is not a complaint, but quick sand and it was good to go. 10/10
Installation: Installing them was pretty much a breeze with two people, my father helped me and he was basically crippled so if that says anything about how easy this was. I had zero fitment issues with the headers although the driver's side bolting it down was kind of a pain for some reason but I will chalk that up to the heat and lack of beer. 9/10
O2 Sensor Fitment: Now here is where it starts to go down hill. My passenger side O2 sensor barely fit. I thought I was going to break the sensor the way that it required me to insert it. It was an absolute pain to get it screwed in and there is almost no clearance for it against the frame. My driver side one was good though since it is just sticking straight up with nothing to block it. 7/10
Y-Pipe: This is the worst part of the set and probably what brings my score down so much. The y-pipe's fitment was horrendous. I have a gap, now it isn't a very big gap mind you and I'll link a photo down below, between the driver side elbow piece and the main pipe. I believe that the elbow and the main pipe are nowhere near lined up properly and that the elbow is actually sticking inside at an angle. I was able to cover the gap with the exhaust clamp but I am worried about air leakage, especially with it being so close to my wideband (speaking of wideband the bung works that's all you need). My plan is to weld it up but I will certainly double check that everything is hooked up properly before I bust out the welder. My other issue with the y-pipe is that is doesn't fit the cat back at all. I am going to have to cut the flange on the cat back off and re weld it so that it will fit since none of the pipes line up. Currently I am just straight piping right now it but I'm basically going to have to make a new cat back. 4/10
Overall: 6/10 I would give this product a solid 6 out of 10. I would not hesitate to recommend this to someone but I would let them know that there could be problems. This is the hole. I know it looks small but it caused massive issues with installation. As you can somewhat see there is a gap between the elbow piece and the main y. This leads me to believe that since it is not sitting flush against each other that it is kind of put on at an angle.
For the price, you can't beat the SE stuff. It's not 100% perfect but neither is the $1300 exhaust I just bought. I'd much rather spend $350 and have to tweak a pipe than spend $1300 and have to do the same thing.
Technically you need to trim the collector back like 2 or so inches for the y-pipe to fit. This is probably why you were having those issues.
Of course they don't tell you this on their website, there's a good write-up that was posted here awhile back that mentioned that. I had the same issues on my 08 that you mentioned and didn't fit properly until I trimmed them.
I don't believe that will solve the hole in my y-pipe. I know that will make putting on the cat-back easier, I've seen some guys talk about something like that on YouTube, but that is not my problem either.
07-17-2021, 08:00 PM
definitely should have mentioned price point.
