Just finishing up an overhaul and I have some cheap ebay headers sitting in the garage. I cant fork out the money for $600 plus headers at the moment. I need to keep EGR so I would have to fabricate a tube to run the EGR valve on the ones I have here. Im also concerned with heat on the brake lines and fuel lines. Is it worth the trouble to install these headers or would I be ok with running the stock exhaust manifolds?

 

I'll comment on your heat question. I have the headers wrapped on my Camaro and it's amazing how well the wrap reduced the underhood temp. A roll of wrap is about $25 from summit and will do one V8 -sized header. You use stainless steel tie wraps to hold it in place. You can get the stainless tie wraps from home depot or lowes or summit.

 

I have some rolls of titanium header wrap. Just the headers here being "cheap" and the fabrication required may not be worth all the hassle for no gains. I have heard of the crossover causing head gasket issues but yet there are 3.0's out there with 150-200k on them with no issues running stock everything. If I can return these and get my money back without setting myself up for failure that is the goal.

 

Your 4runner has run for 24 years with the stock manifold. Yeah, I suppose you might only get ANOTHER 24 years out of them before you need to go out and buy an aftermarket replacement. :^)

But I think you can wait until then to decide.

 

My thoughts exactly! I guess I wanted to hear someone else say it lol. Although the internet has plagued the stock system as "the worst engineering ever". Ill keep it stock for now.

 

I agree with Scope103.

The stock manifolds are fine and will work with your EGR system without the need to fabricate anything.

The 3VZ-E, while not the absolute best automotive engineering, they are far from being bad. As you pointed out, there are still many 3VZ-E engines with over 200,000 miles that did not have any kind of major failure.

 

Im returning the headers and sticking with stock. I appreciate everyone's input!