Finally getting around to doing the HE341 to He351 swap on my 03. While at it i figure it might be good to check into a new exhaust manifold. How about some suggestions and why. I don't really want to go over $600 for one. Thanks in advance.

 

Keep the stock one. With a stock-ish turbo you won't gain what you will have to pay for it.

 

Thanks Spooler, like I said just figured if I ever did it now would be the time. Not real worried about the cost just would hate to tear back into it in a few years due to it being cracked. Just being a little proactive and figuring you guys could lead me in the right direction. Thanks again.

 

I got a 2 pc. from kt performance. I think it was ~$370 delivered. I already had the turbo and wanted a little more suds for towing in the mtns. and I got it. I gasket matched all the ports including the turbine. I also beat out the front heat shield and got it to fit the new manifold. Craig

 

thanks Craig, did it give you a little more? Did it help your EGT's and spool up?

 

Unless you are modified a good bit it's not worth it. Steedspeed is the way to go though if you get the bug.

 

Steed speed makes a very nice unit but its not worth it on anything but a severely modded truck or comp truck, its passages are simply too big and spool suffers for your average Joe.
I do agree exhaust manifold is really a waste unless yours cracks or you are going to a larger set up.
In This case I believe in SS, and I don't care from whom. I don't know why they haven't caught on with more people and become the only thing anyone would buy? If you simply look at the heat retention characteristics between a standard manifold construction and that of SS its a big difference. SS simply retains much more heat, and all you want out of a manifold is heat (energy) retention.

I can tell you from honest results my SS manifold after hard runs makes me wish I had a turbo timer, the darn thing takes for ever too cool down. It retains more heat and doesn't cool down fast, exactly what it should.

 

I did mine about a yr ago. I don't recall any improvement in spoolup. I had the money and wanted to improve the 4-5-6 cluster and the higher temp of #6... if it's really true about it running hotter. I've also had a badly shrunken manifold with hard to seal turned up ends and wanted to avoid that. I could pull all the Az. mtns in 6th but it would be down around 1900 rpm and couldn't accelerate. After the manifold, if I got down to 1900 on the steep ones cuz of traffic or whatever, I could accelerate back up to wherever I wanted to run. The slight decrease in egt is barely noticeable but I have that extra power I described without ANY increase. It's expensive power but I'm not a bit sorry I did it, especially for $359! Craig

 

I've got a Steedspeed sitting in a box in the garage and have yet to get it installed. Boy am I slacking. I need to get some new gaskets and get it installed.

 

Thanks Craig, that is the kinda info I was looking for and very helpful.