Has anyone tried the new JBA exhaust manifold on a 5.4L '05????

 

Check my gallery...

 

do a search it has been done before

 

Which mod; first, second, last? Satisfaction? Improvement...sound, feel, economy? Do you feel it gave you what you expected for your money?

Thanx
David

 

I had my MagnaFlow on already, and installed the headers. Once the headers were complete, I immediately installed the XCal2.

First off, they were an absolute pain to install, but very doable being that I did it alone in my garage without a creeper (although it took a few weeks because I wasn't hurried and was waiting on locking hardware).

Second, am I satisfied with them...yes. For the cost and trouble, eh...so so. Let me explain - they did what I hoped they would, and that was flow and respond much better, not to mention at higher rpms such as highway cruising. However, for the $650+ or whatever I paid for the headers (got the titanium ceramic coated ones) plus the hassle of the install, it drives most people away. The other thing that kind of disappointed me was that it's ONLY the headers. I would have much rather had a very nice "Y" pipe included and also ceramic coated, however that doesn't seem very possible or cost effective considering the Y pipe has the cats on it where as my '94 Ranger didn't, and the JBA headers came with a Y pipe.

Feel is awesome, the truck torques very hard at start both physically and audibly, and the idle feel of the exhaust is perfect yet rough enough to make ya say..."nice". Economy, not sure if you mean price (which I've already touched on) or MPG-wise, but my MPG has gone down a little since installing them. However! And a big however, I attribute most of this to the fact that I love hearing and feeling the exhaust, therefore get on it a little more...that combined with the fact that the exhaust flows better, and the XCal2 really opened up throttle response, makes it VERY hard to keep the truck under 2k. I did however do that for one tank right after I installed everything and got 1 MPG more, however on average it has gone down. I really do attribute my MPG loss to the fact I do almost all in town driving and "blip" it quite often because it just sounds so healthy.

Would I do it again? Yeah, hell I did it again after I said I wouldn't when I put them on my Ranger. Now, I've had them on and off so many times (had a hard time sealing them and getting used to the different sound that sounded a little like a leak) that it'd be much easier now.

I think my intake will REALLY wake the truck now, and that's where I know it's "hurting". My exhaust is fully opened up, and my intake is stock and therefore quite restricted compared to the exhaust. Most people will usually have an intake on before doing headers...not me though. So I guess, all in all, when you specifically ask about getting what I wanted for what I paid, I'm a little mixed just because the headers were so much $ and hassle originally in my opinion but once you get them on, I wouldn't go back Then again, 650 is not near the 1500 I saw for a set of longtubes...and I sure as hell would not want to install those! Heh.

Here's a link to a small write-up I did when I finished the install, as well as a video...check out the whole video

 

DS,
Wow, great info....exactly what I wanted to hear. I have been leary of doing any mods to my '05 as of yet (10130 miles) as it is still in 12 & 12. I have been geting great miliage (relatively speaking) of 15 - 18 mpg depending on where I drive and whether I can keep my foot out of it. As for the intake....before or after the T-body? I dont recall seing any intake manifolds for 5.4 trucks w/ TBW. I suspect it will be more of a integrated approach from the aftermarket once TBW becomes a little more standard. I'm a Mech E and I want the ROI to be more tangible. While I cannot argue with the esoteric aspects of a truly knarly sounding exhaust, it should only cost me money once. I just am not willing to trade sound for miliage....not yet.

Thanx
David

 

Did you get a chance to drive it with the headers before you installed the Xcal? If so, did you notice any difference over the stock manifolds?

 

Yes, the difference was definitely all flow related, especially higher RPMs. The "get-up and go" for instance on the freeway was the most notable -- and can be seen just in theory by the side by side pictures in my gallery of stock vs JBA. The stock manifold runner was slightly larger, if the not the same size as each individual runner on the JBA header so quite a bit more flow is possible.

As far as the intake, I'm just talking about an intake tube...I have a JLT CAI which I need to dyno tune or something...unfortunately, it's not one of those "drop ons" but I think it will be worth it.