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JustHemi · 08-18-2017, 05:11 PM

Well, the last few months were nothing short of interesting.

End of June i decided to get these headers and y pipe on. Tore the exhaust off in about an hour. Three broken bolts in heads which I knew was happening. That's why I bought the headers. Got one out with welding a nut on it. Couldn't get the other two. Tried easy outs. Broke off. Had to wave the white flag. Towed it out to a buddy that was a Chrysler mechanic for years and works out of his garage now. He decided within minutes they were too messed with to mess with. So the heads got pulled. Took them to a head shop, drilled studs out. Went ahead and had them upgrade the springs and seats as well while they were out to avoid another head pull.

Gets the heads back from head shop and one of the spark plug towers has a crack in it. Takes it back and not in a good mood. Guy in the back admits to cracking it. So my buddy tells him what for, leaves the head, they fix it, done. Brings it back, installs them, no compression on cylinder 4. Thinks they didn't check compression on it after they messed it up. Takes head back again for the third time. They test it, checks out fine. Comes back and looks deeper and finds one of the mds lifters was spun for who knows what or how. Calls warranty company. They come out and check it, clear it, and try to give me hell about changing my own oil. I let the guy dig his hole, and then remind him I only have had the truck for 9k miles, changed it 5k ago, and then read him the Magnuson Moss law after he told me I had to have a repair shop PO receipt with VIN, mileage, etc. signed by the shop. He ended the conversation by telling me my records were more than adequate and I shouldn't have an issue ever again....haha.

So, anyways, truck gets put back together, I go out to help him finish exhaust. Headers go on with minimal issues other than oil dipstick tube I was unaware had to come out. Go to put the JBA Y pipe on that is a "direct bolt on" with the JBA long tube headers. Ya right. This thing was so far off it looked like it was made for another vehicle. We got it on the first time before the cylinder 4 issue, but it took a 250lb guy cranking it over with a 3ft pry bar to get it to half way line up and then it was coming out of the junction at that point. So we had to make two relief cuts in it and bend it and slightly twist it. Took it to another buddy of mine to have him weld the gaps over with stainless. I emailed Moe's Performance about it. Never got a reply. For $250, this is a joke. I will never recommend JBA again to anyone. I can tell you that for sure. And Moe's performance as well as JBA will be getting pics of the amount of fabrication we had to do to get this thing to lay in without any stresses. Now I know I should have spent the extra $400 on the ARH setup. So that took another couple of weeks to sort through with getting schedules lined up and having people with full time businesses fix other peoples screwups on their time off.

But anywho, it's back together, runs better than it ever did, but 2 months of a nightmare and almost $3k in total parts and labor including the header setup. But hey, I shouldn't ever have to worry about a spring or seat issue either. Idles better too now. Apparently some of the intake gaskets were seeping air at the bottom he found. I will post some pics here soon.

JustHemi · 08-18-2017, 05:27 PM

Here are some pics of the heads and the redone y pipe. Had to move the O2 bung as well because it wouldn't let me use the extension on the driver side without hitting the friggin trans pan.