My JBA headers were the first mod I put on the truck (don't ask me why, except the stock caterpillers are butt ugly). When my mechanic swapped the '00 motor for the '01 he discovered that one of the headers had a leak from a bad weld. So last week I called JBA regarding the warrantee, and they told me it was a lifetime warrantee. Whoopee. So they sent me a replacement header, and I took it in to the dealer today to replace the defective one. About 2 p.m. I get a call from the mechanic saying I should come down and look at the new header. I do, and it is clear that the new header is very different from the old one. Even to my non-mechanical eye it is obvious that the mating surface is not flush, and the holes in the tubes are smaller. If we put it on there is going to be a lot more back pressure on one side, and the gasket is likely to blow. This blows. We call JBA, and they say this is their new design (apparently leaking welds were a common problem on the old design). We confer, and I decide that there is no way that the new ones are going on my truck. I would rather have the leak than more back pressure. The new header goes back to JBA tomorrow. But my mechanic has a friend who is an ace welder, and he is going to try to get the hole in the old header welded shut before it goes back on. Stay tuned for further developments.

Btw, if you live anywhere near Ventura and own a Lightning that needs work you should take it to Ricky Muldoon at Barber Ford; he is not only extremely competent but also loves working on these trucks, maybe because he gets to test drive them. He can drive mine all he wants.

 

HI!... ALPHADOGGY : I know what you mean. Take a look at my gallery, very bottom of my SIG and click. You will see how much work I put into my JBA hedders to get them up to my standards.

 

hey neal, with all that work on a 5.4 motor, why not do a supercharger as well? or why not just get a lightning to start with? no flame or insult intended.

 

Hey alphadoggy,

I've spoken to you a number of times, but this time I think you got what you paid for. A product that was too early entered into the Lightning market, better luck next time.

This is the same reansion that I'm always in last place but am never spending too much, let the other guy function test the new product.

BR...