I was all excited when my JBA shorties arrived for my 5.4L 2001 F-150. For days I waited untill I had a few free days install this babys.

Now after two days of cussing like a sailor, scraps on both hands and a few fingers that are still numb the dame things are on. THe problems was trying to start and tighten the bolts that happen to be behind several on the header tubes. Using Stage 8 locking bolts was also super fun trying to get the E-Clip on in all the tight spaces.

In all, afterwards they do look good and I notice a slight differnce in exhaust sound at idle. But when I go WOT it sounds like an exhaust leak. A friend went for a test drive with me and he said the sound is normal and is the exhaust sound in the tubes. There is no ticking like a leak would normal produce at idle. WHen I drive the truck easy (normal acceleration and at the speed limit) the exhaust is almost as quite as the stock exhaust manifolds, but when I open it up I here what sounds like an exhaust leak (like a puddering tick)

I would appreciate any feedback from anyone who has added headers and experienced the same sound. Is what I'm hearing normal for these headers or do I have a problems?

Thanks, Brad

 

I had a small leak in mine also. I was unable to hear it at idle, but WOT was very noticeable. I used a piece of hose as a stethascope to locate the leak at idle. Turned out that I forgot o scrape the carbon deposits off the heads on one side. Had a small leak behind #6 cylinder, between the gasket and the head.
I ended up thaking them back off and cleaning the heads. No more ticking.

 

Thanks Red42L:

I was hopeing the flange was leaking but it seems to be coming from one of the cylinders on the driver side. Using a hose is a great tip. Used to do something like this many year's ago to find ticking lifters and rockers. How we forget simple stuff!

I think I know the cause. I've ****ed the header flange due to uneven tightening before torqueing down the bolts. A few bolts had to be hand tightened. I'm sure this caused the problem.

I'll use you tip.....I'll going to first loosen all the bolts and then retighten each evenly. I only have 8000 miles on the engine so no carbon build was present when I removed the stock manifolds. Hopefully, I will get lucky.

Thanks again for the feedback

Brad
(Buck150)

 

Good luck. Hope you get the leak fixed. I'm sure you will love the headers. I think I should have also used the locking bolts. I re-torqued mine the other day, and some were quite loose.

 

Question? How does your 4.2 liter run with all of your mods over the stock engine?

 

It runs much better than stock. My exhaust was my first mod, and I didn't have the truck long enough before changing it to tell if it made a difference. I added the superchip and the Airaid at the same time, and WOW, what a difference. Had just those mods for the longest time, but decided I wanted more. Added the electric fans one day, and the headers the next. Another awesome gain in performance. My next mods will be the underdrive pullies and 3.73 gears in the rear. I'm hoping for another good gain from those two. I'm not really sure what to do after this. I'm not quite ready to go internal to the engine or add a blower yet.
I know my Expy (also an automatic) is a bit heavier than my F-150, but there is definately a huge difference in performance over the stock 4.6L.

 

Red42L:

The leak I thought I apparently had is NOT a leak. I reinstalled the driver's side bank twice, had a repair shop check it out and also went to a muffler shop. Everyone claims everything it tight and sealed. The noise I'm hearing (like a flutter heard from a loose flange) I'm told is the air resonating in the pre-heat/cat section of my exhaust which is right at the header collector.

Called JBA and they tiold me the 4.6 & 5.4 have that noise and is common for those engines. Have to heard of this before? You might not experience this sound with a 4.2.

Thanks in advance.

 

Thanks for the input,

I'm going to do the same thing to my truck but the exhaust is going to be diff. going with spintech gts. I talk to ASP about a week ago and the pullies are not in production as of yet, but they will be in about 3 weeks and that was a week ago. I want to ask them if they were going to make the water pump pulley too?

Later,

Eric

 

Buck150,

I have noticed the 'ticking' on mine also. It's not as loud of a tick as it was when I did have a leak. I sure I don't have a leak now, so I guess I will have to live with it.

FaStGaF150,

I also spoke with ASP a couple weeks ago. They told me they were waiting on the balancers from Ford to mount the pullies to. They will also be making the water pump pullies. The person that I spoke with seemed to think that they were going to be using the pully from the new Mustang. I was told the pully was smaller than the one that is normally on the F-150 and it would turn out to be a 30% underdrive instead of 25%.