C6 Corvette AFE PFadt Header Installation Review

C6 Corvette owners will need to practice some patience when attempting to install these headers at home.

Installing headers on your Corvette can make a world of difference in terms of both performance and sound, but headers are generally expensive and installation costs drive the overall price of the project even higher. Fortunately, as Corvette Forum member “njedwardz” shows us in his installation review thread of the AFE Pfadt headers for a C6 Corvette, adding long-tube headers and a mid-pipe isn’t that hard of a job, provided that you know what needs to be done to make them fit easily.

Corvette Header Swap Introduction

When the OP first posted his thread to the C6 Tech/Performance section, he explained why he was swapping from one set of Pfadt headers to another, while providing some details on his preparation for the install.

Greetings all,

As detailed in a previous thread, I recently discovered a crack on a collector weld on one of my original Pfadt 1-3/4″ tri-y headers on my 2013 A6. After weighing my options, I decided to order up a set of the now-AFE Pfadt 1-7/8″ headers rather than having the weld repaired (in case the other welds had issues as well, and because they were 6 years old with over 70k miles on them).

He also included an array of pictures of the new headers before and after coating, along with a shot of the old headers next to the new headers, allowing us to see the design difference between the Pfadt 1 ¾ and 1 7/8 headers. Since he put his entire review of the installation process into one, long thread, we have broken it down into two sections, coating and installation.

Coating the Headers

Before installing the AFE Pfadt headers, the OP wanted to protect the metal, so he researched a variety of coatings and companies who can apply the coating. Ultimately, he went with the at-home route for this, looking to avoid the high price of essentially having his new exhaust parts painted.

I looked into various coating options, and decided to apply Cerakote high-temp myself (doing headers, x-pipe, exhaust through a professional coating service quoted around $1000!). Here’s a few shots of the new system before/after coating.

The coating turned out very nicely for my first time. Looking at the side-by-side of the old vs new sets, you can see that the primary pipe arrangement is a good bit different.

As you can see, he coated the headers and the new mid-pipe for his Corvette, helping to both protect the metal from the elements while also insulating some of the heat from the engine bay.

After getting the headers coated, the OP began the install in his 2013 Corvette, starting with removing the old headers. Removing the old headers went well, but that was the end of the smooth sailing.

The old headers came out with zero drama; I just unbolted them and easily manipulated them from the car. The new set, however, required me to unbolt the motor mounts and raise the motor as high as I could without removing the intake manifold – even then, my nice coating got scraped up a lot along the way. The passenger side header was especially difficult to get into position. Of course, right after I got them in, I decided to order a set of Hinson poly mounts to replace my now-6-year-old factory motor mounts. This meant that the headers had to come out again, and the cradle lowered as much as possible to get the mounts swapped. Even with the cradle lowered, the passenger side header was very difficult to remove/install (although I suspect if I had lowered the cradle to begin with, I could’ve done it without really scraping the coating up).

While scraping up the coating on the headers is really more of an annoyance than anything, the information shared by the OP could help other C6 Corvette owners from scuffing up their own headers during the install. Really, even with the headache of having to lift the engine and scuffing up the new pipes, this installed seemed to be easy enough for anyone with moderate mechanical skills to tackle the job at home.

The OP ended with some final thoughts on the project and the new headers for his Corvette.

The main issue preventing an easy installation of these headers (for me) was space between the starter, frame, and cradle on the passenger side. I think that the different primary pipe arrangement on the AFE headers made them way harder to get into place – I’m sure there was some reason for this arrangement, but I don’t understand fluid mechanics or exhaust scavenging well enough to come up with a valid defense for it.

If they make power the way the original Pfadts did (and I’m expecting more given the larger primaries will accommodate my H/C/I/meth setup better), I would still recommend them. My old set produced a wonderful sound and torque curve – the only issue I see with the new ones is installation. Assuming you have the time and tools to drop the cradle down a bit and raise the motor as well, that’s kind of a non-issue. I would expect a shop to charge more for an install of these than the old ones.

I’m probably still a couple weeks out from running the car due to some other maintenance/upgrade work, and a couple weeks further still from getting it on the dyno. I’ll plan to report back with impressions and objective data when I have it.

If you have input on how to make this header install go more smoothly or if you have questions for the OP before attempting the install yourself, click here to head into the original thread.

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