I cannot vouch for the <$200 dollar headers because I have spent the money and put DT long tube set of headers on my 3VZ-E and have about 10K miles on them at this point. I can also tell you that my head gasket at #1 let go shortly after I got my 4RUNNER at slightly >233K miles when it was bone stock. The #1 and #6 cylinders share the same geometry as far as the head gasket and water galleries are concerned. The water galleries in the block are blind in the heads but these external water gallery ports at the end of the block have the shortest distance to the compression ring in a composite head gasket for the 3VZ-E. The OEM exhaust manifold on the DS of the engine has all of the #1, #3 and #5 PS cylinders dumping into the crossover pipe and into the DS manifold right were the #6 exhaust port is in the manifold. The gasses from #2 and #4 also dump into the same place were # 6 has its port and then the entire junction has the port for the down tube pipe that heads off to the CAT. My insulator on my #6 spark plug had disintegrated at some point in this engine which I would attribute to the heat load on #6 being higher than the rest of the engine as it may have more difficulty in getting rid of its exhaust than do the other cylinders. I can't prove this but by observing the design and making some assumptions this seems like a logical explanation for the insulator having disintegrated on my #6 cylinder. As I am running the DT-headers with 2-1/2" exhaust and both a 2-1/2" CAT and 2-1/2" FlowMaster FX muffler the modification has enhanced the highway drivability of my 4Runner and I would recommend these cheap headers and opening up the exhaust as the 3VZ-E likes to rev and make power because the torque is never going to be great unless you super charge it to get past the intake restrictions. Engines are pumps and that OEM exhaust manifold is a nightmare when you look into it from the #6 port and see what I am saying here in. The serviceability of the engine goes up when you rid the engine compartment of that OEM cross over pipe at the back of the heads and you can get some heat load out of the engine compartment too. The only other recommendation I would make is to spring for a set of turbo flanges and pitch the u-clamps for joining the headers pipes together. That has made for a very leak free and quit exhaust system on my 4Runner.

 

Thanks for the info. Going to go speak to a local muffler shop and figure out if they can do install the yota1 delete kit and reroute the passenger exhaust.

 

Older thread but figured I would contribute.

I have had those cheap headers for almost 3 years and at least 35,000 miles. This last summer I did 10,000 miles in 3 months for work, a lot of long, high rpm highway drives and still no problems from heat around the various lines, or damage to my AC. The heat was my main concern when I first got them, as I don't have a lift. They are cheap; the bolts that come with the kit are not the correct pitch, the clamps are obviously junk. I used slip clamps from JEGS for all my connections. I deleted my pair and egr so I don't know how that works but it looks like those components are decent with the kit. I don't have a body lift and it was tight. I wrapped all the close lines in heat tube, and have not had any problems with heat damage. I did wrap a single tube on the passenger side because it basically was sitting on the starter. I also put a heat jacket on the starter, but left the end open facing the front of the truck so not to trap heat. Have not had any starter problems. Original starter (~280xxx). The headers are starting to look a little corroded - we have terrible roads here in the winter, and I need to reinstall the flaps on the front. I figured leaving them off to get as much air flow around the other lines near the headers would be a good thing. But so far they don't leak, and I made them fit fine without a body lift. Though I will be putting on a 1" body lift this summer for ease of service, and so I can remove the mess of heat blanket I packed around the headers to keep the firewall protected. Verdict - they are definitely worth the 165 bucks. They also sound really good with a Borla muffler. And the supra AFM.