Gibson review

[HD Doug]

OK, both systems are finally installed, and here are my notes and opinions.

 

CATBACK PROS:

1. Fit and finish, easy install

2. Sound

3. Power increase

4. Tips are sweet-looking

 

CATBACK CONS:

1. None, really.  There was a "tinny" rattle at certain RPM's, but an impact wrench to the clamps fixed that.  My 33" spare touches a pipe, but OE spares are smaller and I just put header wrap around the pipe.

 

 

HEADER PROS:

1. No welding or torch-cutting

2. Extra sound is cool, especially the little ticking I can hear under the hood.

3. I can't speak for performance, as I only drove it briefly for two days with just the exhaust/intake.  I couldn't wait that long to get used to it!  I have to believe it's there, though.

4. Header fit and quality appears rock solid (after an initial error-see below.)

 

HEADER CONS:

1. Passenger side had improperly placed EGR valve (see more below.)

2. EGR gasket supplied was wrong size.

3. Head gasket for passenger side blocked 2 middle spark plug holes and had to be cut away for access...only discovered this after everything was bolted together; what a pain that was!

4. Time consuming for rookies (10 hours total,) but what could I expect?  Labor fees would have killed me!

 

GIBSON SUPPORT/CUSTOMER SERVICE:

Very good.  After the initial discovery of the passenger side header being built incorrectly, they immediately began to make new ones and overnighted one to me as soon as it was done.  Any phone calls I needed to make to clear up questions were taken immediately and I actually talked to real people.  This is something I used to take for granted, but not after several recent piss-poor customer service departments I've experienced!  The instructions that came with the exhaust were pretty much spot-on, except I didn't cut as far forward from the OE muffler as they recommended.  The header instructions were lacking several things that should have been included, and added one step that wasn't required, but we managed to figure things out.  Again, the phone lines were always clear.

 

Sorry so long, but if any of you want to do this install, I hope I helped.

 

HD Doug

[hosman]

Thinking of the same.....headers and exhaust.Notice any performance gains? Or did it just sound better? Worth the dough? Did you go stainless? Thanx for the info.......

[ShortCrew]

Sounds nice. On the Bitch Meter, how hard is the header install? The passanger side of the 8.1L looks easy enough but the drivers side looks tougher.

 

Do the headers bolt to the factory downpipes? How big is the collector on the headers? Any pictures?

 

[Black02Silverado]

I was looking at the header myself. Keep us posted on any performance and economy changes. Thanks for posting all the info. It is a big help to those of us that are considering any performance mods.