Exhaust Headers 1-5/8 x 2-1/2 in. 304 Stainless Steel Polished Finish for 2009-2017 RAM 1500 Pickup Truck 5.7L Hemi V8

First, although these headers will provide some small increase in performance numbers, any reviews claiming that installing these headers will provide a "noticeable" increase in horsepower, or torque are false. Nor will you notice any increase in throttle response and any fuel mileage increase you experience will be negligible at worst, and 1 to 2 mpg at best. Also, they will change the sound of your exhaust to a deeper, more throaty sound, but they will not make your exhaust noticeably louder, especially if you already have an aftermarket exhaust installed. The only reason to install these headers on an otherwise mostly stock 5.7 liter engine in a Ram 1500 is in the hopes of avoiding the need to replace broken exhaust manifold studs/bolts and warped manifolds down the road. Second, the header tubes are in fact stainless steel, while the flange material is mild steel. And yes, these materials can be tig welded together using the correct filler material. If you are reading this you already have the tools available to verify this and do not need me lecturing you on the metallurgical properties of different types and grades of metal materials. Now that those two items are out of the way, I experienced none of the installation issues or quality issues reported in the negative reviews for these headers and I believe most of the negative reviews can be attributed to user error and level of competency. In fact, the only thing that made these more difficult to install than new exhaust manifolds is the need to use a swiveling or flex head ratcheting wrench on the header bolts, and one bolt required the open end of a combination wrench instead of a socket and ratchet for the OEM exhaust manifolds. The driver's side was a piece of cake to install assuming you have separated the steering shaft, bent the oil dipstick and ac lines out of the way, and removed the routing bracket on the frame rail while removing the old manifold and all the driver's side bolts are easily tightened with a ratcheting wrench. Put the four bottom bolts in their respective bolt holes, slide the slotted openings on the bottom of the flange onto those bolts, install the remaining bolts, tighten all bolts and you're done. The passenger side is even easier to get into place, although tightening the passenger side header bolts is a little more difficult than the driver's side. Some critical thinking skills are required to get the fasteners started and except for one bolt (third bolt from the front on top) are just as easy to tighten. Installation for the passenger side is easily accomplished by threading a bolt into the third bolt hole from the front on top in until you have a little more than the flange thickness remaining, slide the header into place, sliding the slot in the flange around the head of the partially installed bolt and use some dexterity, or another set of hands if available, to start the top front bolt to hold the header in place. Then get all of the other bolts started in their respective bolt holes. Tighten the aforementioned third bolt from the front on top using the open end of a combination wrench. You're only going to get about a 1/4 turn before needing to flip the wrench but it isn't too difficult, just time consuming. Be sure to tighten the other bolts incrementally as you go, but don't tighten any of the other bolts too much until the header flange is relatively tight against the head, otherwise you will not have the clearance to allow your wrench to fit on the troublesome top bolt. Tighten this bolt as much as possible once the header is in full contact with the head, tighten all the other bolts and then recheck them all again for tightness.) The included hardware and gaskets are sufficient, but I recommend using ARP header bolts and a good brand name gasket (Felpro or Remflex are good choices). As the saying goes: buy once, cry once. If the gaskets you choose to use have the heat shield like the oem gaskets do, you will need to bend or trim the heat shield above the passenger side top, third bolt from the front out of the way to allow you to work your magic with the open end of your wrench. It is actually helpful to bend the heat shield on both sides up as much as possible. Also, and especially if you have to extract broken exhaust manifold bolts/studs, I recommend having an 8mm X 1.25 tap on hand and running it into the bolt holes to clean up the internal threads prior to putting the headers in place. This can save you the headache of having to start all over if one bolt won't start into its bolt hole or tightens up prematurely. These headers are beautiful out of the box and appear to be of decent quality. The welds are complete and look amazing. No special tools are required except for swiveling or flex head ratcheting wrenches. You may have to remove the passenger side O2 sensor as I did due to it preventing access to the collector/Y-pipe flange bolts so an O2 sensor socket isn't a bad idea to have on hand either. Other than that, I am pleased with my experience with these thus far. I can't comment yet on longevity, but if I do have issues in that area, I will update this review accordingly.

Wow, I loved the quality of the headers. They fit perfectly, and I am so impressed with the quality. The only negative thing is the bolts that came with the headers. They were grade 5 and when I put them in they were just barely too long so they bottomed out in the head and did not torque or feel right. I took them back out and one broke off when removing it. Thankfully I was able to remove it with vice grips. I checked the length and the bolts that came with the headers and they were about ¼" too long. I went to Lowes and bought Stainless replacements that were about ¼" shorter. Stainless bolts are like grade 13 so much stronger. They torqued perfectly and I am so glad I did that. I also used a copper exhaust sealer around the ball outlet, mostly to guarantee a smooth connection of the exhaust pipe. I highly recommend theses headers. They look great and I think the performance is worth it and adds to the mild cam I put in the motor.

These things might look cool but installing them was a pain. I spent about 2 and a half days trying to install them. Some of the bolts you can barely get a wrench around it. The welds also looked terrible on them.

I bought these to fix the common issue i was having with my 2016 ram. Apparently the exhaust manifolds from the factory were not tempered well and would expand enough to sheer off the bolts after a while. I replaced my stock manifolds with these and never had another issue. I highly recommend these. They were a great fit and bolted right up to my stock exhaust pipes without any modifications

I typically think it is safe to assume "you get what you pay for" but that's not the case here. I gave a 5 star to ease of use but make no mistake, these are tough to install. Forget about torque specs on the bolts, absolutely no way you are getting these tightened any other way than by feel. There is a bolt on each side that sits directly behind a pipe, I literally used painters tape to secure a ratcheting flex head socket to a bolt in position on the header before trying to install them; in a way they are held in place but not so that the tape is impossible to remove. There are a couple of bolts that are very hard to reach, but not impossible. I have a huge variety of ratcheting wrenches, swivel sockets, wobble extensions and I made use of most of them looking for the perfect way to access hard to reach bolts. If you are bull headed, patient, somewhat mechanically inclined, and decent selection of tools, these will do. The ball sockets looked small at first but I don't have any leaks. I replaced a set of longtubes with these and I would say installation of both is an equal pain in the ass, for slightly different reasons. I painted these with a header paint and wrapped them in dei wrap so that lessened the room to work with a bit, looking back I would only paint them. That said, I had no rust on mine after unboxing them. There seemed to be a bit of oil on them, but it wasn't as issue...especially since I hand sanded and degreased them during paint prep. If you are looking for a cheap alternate to SW, ARH...that doesn't exist but for me...these are fine. I did not use the included gasket and wouldn't, get an oem or better quality replacement. Or you ll likely be doing the job again. Sorry for the TLDR but maybe it will be helpful for someone that takes the time to read this.

Product showed up in great shape. Very nicely packaged and solid quality definitely looks like the seller has taken the negative reviews into consideration and made the necessary changes. My issue is my Y-pipe is off by about an inch on the drivers side can not get it to line up for the life of me. It will require me to cut the Y-pipe and modify and re weld in order to make it fit up and have no leaks. Other than that it’s great but I shouldn’t have to modify to this extent considering it should be pretty plug and play.

Great sound with cats still working. Let that exhaust flow.

Although the install process is a pain, the headers fit great. Not sure how long they will last but for now all ok.

pretty

Ok, I took my time and tested a bit before writing this review. Looked nice out of the box nice and shiny appeared well made. Well the headers and gaskets supplied didn't quite line up with the holes and ports on the head. This just made it a bit more of a struggle to install. I drove to work back home for lunch, back to work again then back home. For me that's about 100km. Sounded like crap by the end of day so I began tearing it down again. What I seen surprised the hell out of me.. the gaskets had melted on the top portion of every port causing fumes to leak into the cab. The exhaust sound was as if I wasnt using a muffler at all. The absolute garbage gaskets supplied are complete trash. DO NOT USE THESE ON YOUR ENGINE!! Now I need a thread repair kit because the vibration of the exhaust not being sealed caused stripping. The welds were incomplete so even if itwere sealed correctly it sure as hell would eventually have gotten louder on its own. For the price they charge I expect a better product, I coulda gone with high end name brand for almost the same cost. Well good luck with your install and I hope yours is better than the one I got .