Those of you with Speed Engineering headers, how long have you been running them, and how many miles have you driven in that time?

Any problems? Header gasket leaks? Cracks? Etc?

It's really hard to justify spending $1500 for a set of headers when SE has them for a fraction of that. So let's hear it. Who has long term experience running these?

For the record, I have a pair of their shorty headers on my '03 2500HD for about 2 years now. Not that many miles, this truck is mostly a work, winter/crappy weather and plow truck. Maybe 10,000 miles so far. No problems, though the head pipe flanges didn't line up very well. The factory Y pipe was more than 1/2" away from the driver's side flange with the passenger side loosely bolted up. REALLY had to honk on the Y-pipe with a huge pry bar to get it to bolt up. I've been worried about something cracking ever since, but so far, so good.

I'm thinking about putting a set of long tubes and Y-pipe on my 2WD 1500.

 

do it, dont look back.
No issues anymore, all problems been resolved.
Im using oem gaskets that was already on the truck with manifolds and 12$ worth of bolts from homedepot to hold them on. Use summit racing to get the size needed.
Go cheap with standard grade 8 or get plated, your choice.

Ebay stainless 3" stepped band clamps to replace the poop they come with.
Take one of the two bolts out of the clamp and go to homedepot or any autostore and get stainless bolts to replace the pos bolts that come with the clamps.
Be advised to use some form of lube (that will burn off) on the threaded bar thats on the clamps, it strips EASY.
Tighten them evenly then crank those ******* as tight as you can.

If your slip fit pipes are loose, you have three options,
One, weld them.
Two, red high temp rtv silicon under the band clamps.
Three, get heavy duty aluminum foil and pull off enough to fold it 3" wide atleast four times and wrap that around the slip junction then slip on the clamps. Be sire it overlaps atleast a half inch. Place the overlap 180* away from the band clamp bolts, this will gasket the slip fit.

I used foil and have no leaks, mine been on for years.

 

How about O2 sensor fit? I read on here about problems on the passenger side, I think? Has this been resolved?

Looking at their ORY pipe: it lists an "optional" wide band O2 sensor port. I would definitely want this for tuning. I assume it's located downstream of the merge and is accessible to the tuner?

Who else has them and for how long?? Speak up guys, I know a bunch of you have bought these headers...

 

Passenger side went through three revision for the O2, from what i have seen and read, its resolved.

The optional widband bung is feom what I have seen is on the cross over pipe from the driver header, located parallel tp ground facing forward

 

I have some but only for a few weeks. I've never had any type of headers before so I don't know the quality of 1500$ jobs but theses 300$ ones fit great to me. My front driveshaft rubs my drivers side but could be because of worn motor mounts but it doesn't bother me yet. I did the tru 3" I love the sound and fit was 85/100 for me. Got a couple little vibration rattles to address but no big deal. I believe I'm gonna go back and silicone and foil the joints. I used the wrong gaskets being a beginner not knowing the thin layered gaskets where the extra 30$ gaskets I bout. I'll change them later if/I develop a leak. I bought arp bolts too instead of using supplied ones

 

Thanks both of you for your helpful replies.

 

i brought some last yr for my 2012 and the passenger side was a tight fit (1 7/8") but the o2 was no problem. I used ebay studs to put them on and have had no leaks

 

I have a little over 5K miles on mine. Been on the truck several months, driven in all weather. I had V-bands welded on mine to eliminate using band clamps. Bought headers only, didn't need the Y. My exhaust is similar to a 2500 HD, two pipes all the way to the muffler.

Overall they have worked out well. Mine were supposed to be one of the revised versions, but my 02 hit the floor on the passenger side. Other than that, no issues. A good friend of mine has a set on his 2013, he's had them on his truck over a year and around 30K miles. They still look good. He had to make some adjustments to the Y pipe to get it to fit properly.

 

I have had mine for over a year and they are still in perfect shape.... Oh wait.... theyre still in the box in the back seat of the truck need to get off it and get them installed....along with a pile of other stuff i have sitting around!!

 

Yea, like that wideband 😂