I have a 2005 GMC 5.3 stock for the most part minus a y pipe and I'm looking to upgrade to a set of shorty headers. I currently have a bad exhaust leak right at the manifold and I figured I would upgrade while I already had to work on it. My question is I'm really not looking to spend a ton of money on this since its just my DD, I was looking at pacesetter, summit racing, and ebay headers. Any advice on fitmit performance and best bang for your dollar would be very helpful.

 

Stick with the stock manifolds or go Long tubes... Shorties are a pretty much waste of money.

 

I agree long tubes are the way to go

 

True story. Throwing a set of shorties on is basically like throwing a new set of stock manifolds on it.

 

My cast manifolds have impressed me so far. Thinking of having them ceramic coated.

 

dont waste your money on shorties, either get a stock one or go Long tubes

 

It's amazing how people react to shorty headers on here, it's as if shorty is the name of a guy that gave them a bad beat down. OP I have a set of JBA shortys that gave me a nice little boost in performance and mpg on a 02 Tahoe. I also had a manifold bolt broken flush on each head and the headers still sealed with the 5 remaining bolts. I don't think I would trust the ebay headers to seal as well, you can get the stainless version of the JBA for 340 shipped.

 

a nice little boost in performance as in??

 

see this thread https://www.performancetrucks.net/fo...talled-510647/

 

thanks everyone for the inputs and advice, not really sure what direction I'm going to go in or how much I want to put in the truck. I know it definitely has some sort of exhaust leak and some other issues that need to be worked out. This truck get beat pretty hard off road so I'm not looking for something fast or major power but better mpg and no leak would be great