How Ours Are Built

Worth knowing before you compare on price, because these are not the same specification as a generic header.

  • 304 stainless, 16 gauge. Not 409, and not mild steel. 304 is the grade that stays bright and resists scaling at exhaust temperatures — a step above what most systems use, including our own cat-back exhausts.
  • Ceramic coated, and it is not cosmetic. The street kits are ceramic coated for lower underhood temperatures. A coated header keeps heat inside the tube instead of radiating it into the engine bay, which helps exhaust gas velocity and keeps the heat away from everything you have routed nearby. On a tightly packed Toyota four-cylinder that matters more than it sounds.
  • Half-inch thick head flanges. Most headers use a thin flange that warps as it is welded, and a warped flange is the reason headers leak. Ours are 1/2" at the head and 3/8" at the collector, and on the Pro Race kits the head flange is CNC cut and then re-surfaced after the tubes are welded in so the mating face is genuinely flat.
  • The gaskets are in the box, and they are the good ones. Not paper — a metal crush fire ring with a heat deflector for the plug wires. The 22R/RE 4WD street kit includes the connector pipe as well, so it is a complete install rather than a header and a shopping list.

One difference to be aware of: the Pro Race kits are aluminum coated rather than ceramic, and their tubes are mandrel bent from 16-gauge 304 with a merge collector. They are built for flow first. If you want the ceramic coating and the lower underhood temperature, that is the street kits.

Three Things Decide Which Header You Need

Get these right and the rest is straightforward. Get one wrong and the header does not bolt up.

  • Which engine. Not which truck — a 1992 Pickup could be 22RE or 3VZ and they take completely different headers.
  • 2WD or 4WD. The front differential changes what the collector can clear. On the 22R/RE these are separate part numbers and it is the commonest ordering error on this page.
  • Does it have to pass emissions. Several kits are 50-state legal; the Pro Race kits are not, and are sold for off-road use.

22R and 22R-E — Street

The 1985 split matters. The head and exhaust port arrangement changed, and a header for an 81-84 truck will not sit correctly on an 85-95 engine.

22R and 22R-E — Pro Race

Larger primaries and a different collector. Worth it on a built engine with cam and carburetion or injection to match; on a stock engine it moves the power band up and away from where you drive.

2RZ and 3RZ

Note the single-cat qualifier on the 3RZ kit. Dual-cat trucks need a different approach; check what is under yours before ordering.

3VZ and 2TR

The 3VZ kit is explicitly for trucks without the crossover pipe. That is a real constraint, not a preference — read it before you order.

Engine Swap Headers

If you are putting a newer engine in an older chassis, the header is usually what stops the swap being a bolt-in.

Planning a swap? The engine platform pages list what fits what, and the power packages bundle the supporting parts.

Fitting It

Three things worth knowing before the truck is on stands. Use new gaskets and new hardware — the originals have been heat-cycled for thirty years and they will leak. Re-torque after the first heat cycle. And expect the exhaust note to change more than the power does; a header on an otherwise stock engine is a modest gain, and it is the first part of a combination rather than a standalone upgrade.

The Rest of the Exhaust

Headers are half the job. See LCE Pro Flow exhaust systems for the cat-back side, and the engine platform pages for everything else.

Not sure which kit fits? Tell us the year, the engine, 2WD or 4WD, and whether it has to pass an inspection. Those four answers decide it.

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