I recently purchased a 97 Dodge Ram SS/T (2wd short bed) it has the 5.9 Magnum and what appears the factory headers. The headers are starting to look pretty narly from there age and I just blew out the drivers side header gasket again on the drivers side (it was a Mr Gasket ultra-seal). I was curious if anybody has tried the various stainless steel headers on e-bay ones or has a recommendation on what I should buy. Its a daily driver. Thanks guys.

Avoid the ebay junk, those shorty headers are no better than the factory cast manifolds.

If you want the best drop in header, look at Spintechs. they are a mid-length header 4 into 1 design. Great performance and true drop in installation. (although you would have to re-do your entire downpipe, cross over and y-pipe set up, possibly the whole system)

The factory never installed headers. I would not waste $700 on a mid length header. Go long tube ceramic coated for that price since you got to redo the exhaust anyhow. For cheap I would get the 92-93 manifolds and call it good. They are 618 and 619 casting numbers.

It kind of sounds like you guys don't think I would notice much performance loss from the present short headers if I just went back to manifolds to resolve this for good. I may entertain that since its my daily driver and and frankly it doesn't really feel anymore powerful then the stock 5.9 I have had in the past. Thanks guys for all your help!

The ones you will feel are long tube headers as they increase torque below the torque peak as well as above. There will be plumbing problems so it's up to you to decide whether to do it or not.

R.

Get the pacesetter long tube headers they are cheaper than spintechs with the same performance.