headers install

[mustangraven]

installed a set of pace setter headers on my f150 a couple weeks ago so I figured I would share my experience in case anyone else runs into the leaky stock manifold issue on a there expy or f150.
the issue is the stock manifolds tend to rust out dure to the ace unit dripping water onto them (common on alot of ford models) Luckily its not too terribly expensive to fix.
I picked up a set of summit headers which are actually made by pace setter and are the same ones they sell under their name. Summit sells the pace setter ones for 300 bucks and the same headers labeled as summit headers cost 149. they come with gaskets and bolts also. However the gaskets they give you are complete crap spend the extray 16 bucks and get steel core gaskets you will thank youself later as the paper ones that come with them tend to burn through.
the best advice I can give is to take your time and be careful of the egr tube it cost 67 bucks to replace if you break it (yup mine broke POS) If you have a 2x4 it will go considerabley quicker as the 4x4 stuff is not in the way if it is just takes a bit of wiglling to get them out and in however you do not need to diconnect motor mounts or anything. I put the truck on jack stands pulled the wheels and fender wells out and used an asortment of ratchets extensions and swivel joints. make sure you spray the crap out of the stock bolts they are probably seized solid I recomend spraying them a couple times and letting them sit overnight then tackling the job in the am. I personally sanded of the paint that the headers were shiped with as it is just a plain paint and it will burn and flake off anyway. I picked up some header paint as I am cheap and did not want to pay for ceramic coating which is obviously better but costly. The job is labor intensive so if you pay a shop to do it you will get hit hard! save the $ take your time and do the job yourself. Hopefully this saves someone a couple bucks.