Is there any affordable long headers that fit my truck? I found some on craigslist locally the guy said were for a 2500 but they look like the cheap ones on fleabay that say they only fit 1500s. I only paid $200 and have a 1/2 ton they will fit on but I can't spend $2000 on headers for the 2500... any options?

Its these or pony up $2000-$2700

https://www.summitracing.com/search...mi-gen-iii/year/2018/make/ram/model/2500

I wonder why I couldn't find those? And the tube routing looks exactly like the ones I have with no name on them, the flange is different though and the ones on fleabay that look like this say 1500 only...

Is it a stock truck you want more grunt from? I looked around and if its more bottom end you want, the unanimous decision from guys with the same truck is to put deeper gears in it instead

I have a 6.4 BGE short block in a 2011 5.7 truck, I am absolutely not switching two sets of gears to hurt MPG and turn more RPM. It actually tows great already but a little more never hurts and selling the cats will offset a big chunk of the price (actually more than the price if I can use my craigslist headers).

I've had limited, but enough, dealings with headers in general to know if the $2000 units fit without issue it's worth it
You skimp and buy a $700 set and spend the afternoon cursing and cutting fingers just to end up with a set of smashed pipes and an exhaust leak. That's why I'd run manifolds before I'd ever think of buying a set of hookers for any of my cars.

If you are not going to end up with Tri-Y design and long stainless steel tubes in my opinion it is not worth it.

Are two used catalytic converters selling that high?

Palladium scrap is probably going to stay sky high since so much comes from Russia.

The ones I have are long tube stainless steel 4 into 1 headers but unfortunatly they will not fit, I tried today (identical truck I am building for a customer) and even with the head removed they are not going to fit, I could dent the drivers side and trim the motor mount I think and make it fit but not the passenger side.

I am going to put these on a 5.7 1500 I have and possibly buy the ones for a 2500. MY cat buyer says to expect about $400-$500 a pair and he will give me exact price monday when he is here looking at them, I have several others similar to sell him.

I have an 18 2500. Spending 2gs for headers makes me sick. I was thinking of trying the Jeep or Durango 6.4 manifolds and fabbing up the EGR tube adapter. These factory manifolds choke these engines down pretty good.

I really don't think any shorty header is worth the effort, they repeatedly show very little gain compared to long tubes.

As far as EGR I don't have to worry about it, my truck was originally a 5.7 truck and they didn't have that crap on em. This thing with the 5.7 top end and cam tows a lot better than any stock 6.4 truck I have ever driven and better MPG.

I agree long tubes are better but for a quarter of the price or less. I wanted to see if I could find something that is close and fab up what is needed but nothing yet.

I'm still under warranty so I don't want to mess with the egr just yet....

Perhaps buy stainless steel “shorty” headers that will fit the heads without interference,
then cut the headers just before the 4 into 1 merges,
buy stainless steel tubing,
many 2 into 1 Y connectors,
and stainless steel “band clamps”
connect up everything so it fits,
then have a good exhaust shop replace the majority of the band clamps with welds,
keeping any band clamp connections that make removal and re-instal easier.

Not confident all that effort worth
a 7% torque gain while climbing hills during towing.

Would not expect fuel economy gains above 3%

Mazda said their headers primary benefit was to
cool the incoming intake charge by getting rid of the last bit of residual exhaust gas,
so that the dynamic compression ratio could be increased.

But I though putting hot exhaust back in to the intake made it where you could run more compression, I'm confused???

I did seriously think about if those headers would have fit cutting them as you describe and adding in another foot or so though I would like to know scientifically exactly what length they should be for those low RPM I want to run.

7% of TQ is a significant increase on a engine making close to 500lbs, should add at least 25lbs TQ that reduces the number of down shifts that are annoying and waste fuel. The way I built this engine it barely down shifts as it is, if I could reduce it even more than great! It pulls every bit as good as my old V10 truck with 3.55s ever did with much better MPG.

I think a 8-4-2-1 header amounts to just a space saving technique unless you had only cylinders exactly opposite in firing order merge together but that's not very easy with a typical V8 firing order.

Manufacturers seem to be trending toward putting more water cooled EGR back into the intake to raise intake manifold pressure, yet run higher dynamic compression ratio.

I do not claim to completely understand why Mazda emphasized that their header design allowed them to get to 14 to 1 compression, but they felt strongly enough about it to put it in writing.

The new I6 3L Hurricane +20 psi Turbo SO version runs 10.4 to 1 static compression with water cooled EGR AND water cooled exhaust manifolds,
but suggests using 91 Octane AKI gasoline.

I used to think that down shifts from OD to direct drive 3rd on hills by my 46RH/3.21 diff were “bad” and wasted fuel until my fuel flow meter proved to me that MPG in either gear was the same on that % grade of hill.

You should be comparing them to stock manifolds, not long tubes.

One thing to understand is that the milder the engine, the less improvement you will see, with shorties or long tubes.

Another thing to understand, long tubes shine more at higher RPMs over shorties, unless you plan to spend a lot of time at 4500+ the differences isn't as great.

Final thing to consider, how much are you actually going to see with long tubes? +20hp? At $2k that' $100/hp.

That's why I won't be spending $2000 on headers, now if there was a $500 option where most of the cost could be offset by recycling the cats I would be all over it. It wasn't very long ago you could get a decent enough pair of headers (just a few dings to get em to fit) for a dart or something for $100ish, top of the line TTIs could be had for $700ish.

That engine has variable valve timing and dramatically retards the intake closing point to reduce cylinder pressure under high load conditions and advances it under light load, I think that plays a bigger part in allowing the high compression. Also it is very easy for them to run opposite firing cylinders into the same pipe at the first "Y" junction when building a 4cyl or V6 from scratch. On a normal firing order V8 you have to run one pipe from each side over to the other side of the engine to do that.

As for EGR I still think they should pick it up far back after the cat to reduce soot in the system and eliminate the need for a cooler that gives you more places for stuff to leak.

A simple, moderate cost, EGR cooler design is needed.

I have thought about one (or possibly three) straight runs of CUNIFER alloy brake lines of a bigger diameter that could be “rodded out” of carbon build up every so often.

The water cooled EGR designs all look like headaches.