This is what we truely love to read! Thanks for the review.

Anthony
ARH

 

Anthony, you are certainly welcome! I would not post if it was not true. Thanks for building a high quality product in the USA.

 

I agree with this entirely. I have the 1 7/8's only because I run Nitrous and wanted a little more exhaust volume on the bottle, and even though I believe I would have better low-end torque with the 1 3/4s, it still made impressive torque w/ the 1 7/8s. I also have no cats and a QTP cutout that I open at the track. Sounds like a Vette on the street through the stock muffler/resonator with the stock cam and now with the cam its sounds real ferocious @WOT, even with the cutout closed.
Best damn fitting and quality header I've ever seen. You get what you pay for from ARH, IMHO - the only how you could improve these headers would be by coating them.

 

going to order a set this week.
What sort of benefits are there to ceramic coating?
Who can do it, what does it typically cost? I plan on installing headers myself. Any suggestions? Thanks, ya'll

 

I don't know much about ceramic coating except that it was never worth the cost to me. My truck is a DD and not a show truck and the performance gains are minimal if at all, so I was not interested. Since you are going to install them yourself, I would recommend purchasing studs instead of using the OE bolts. They have a poor track record of breaking off in the head. You should plan to remove the inner fenders to complete the install. With the tires and inner fenders removed, the headers are a snap to install. You will have to plan on moving the starter positive lead. I ran mine along the frame and forward about a foot and wrapped with a protective sleeve. Most people use the OE gasket with the headers. I used mine with no leaks, but when I got into it, I wished that I had a new set to use. I would not use the gaskets that ARH provides. Also, keep a thread chaser available for the O2 sensor. My truck only had 4000 miles and I messed up the threads removing one. It took a bit of cleaning, but worked fine. Use anti-sieze on the threads. One last thought, start and warm up the headers before you install the O2 sensors. The oil used in the mandrel bending process can ruin O2 sensors. If you will simply run the engine for a short time to heat up the pipes, wait a few minutes and install the O2 sensors with anti-sieze it will minimize your chance of failure, and they are not cheap. I also like to take a die grinder and clean up the weld splatter inside the pipes. Don't know if does any good, but I am a stickler for detail and it can't do anything but clean up the flow inside the pipes and isn't that why we all pay so much for headers anyway? Once installed, you will need a tune to clean up the fuel mixture and turn off the check engine light. Optimal fuel mixture is considered to be about 14.7 to 1 and my truck was running 10.2 (if I remember correctly) to 1 prior to tuning. That is extremely rich and could possibly foul a plug. Yes, my mileage did improve somewhat, possibly .5 to 1 MPG after tuning. There was a definate performance improvement after tuning too! Good luck with your install!