>>>*The stock factory manifold is simply excellent. I am not sure that for all around use that anybody has ever improved on it with any header.

Now top end? Different thing, yep. LCE, Thorly, Downey, they all do show gains but the truth is that many just move power from one place and put it in another. Add in some torque multiplication gains from RPM and yep. There are gains.

So as with any mod, figure out what you want her to do and get everything working together because for all around everything the factory already did that for us.

For economy it's tough to beat the Hedman piece, and others, they are similar to the stock manifold in the way they run and free things up a bit.. If going aftermarket I would always choose the Tri-Y design over the 4 into one.

Remember that location of the 02 sensor is kinda important too. Plus it needs to be in the flow path, I get emails on tuning probs all the time that trace to a wrong sensor or location.

The big gain? It's in that exhaust pipe and muffler, the factory strangled the little engine to keep it quiet and nice and goosey on the low end for daily driving, also for ground clearence. Not as bad as they did with the 3VZE V-6 but still the exhaust isn't free flowing in stock form, just nicely adequate.

Bigger tires solve the ground clearence prob, so a neat 2" all the way through the cat into the muffler, with 2 1/4" on exit is well proven to be worth nearly 10 ponies to the ground.

Like I mentioned, she still isn't going to be a hot rod but she sure can be more pleasent on the highway....*EB