passenger manifold y pipe exhaust leak advice

My truck has an exhaust leak at the y pipe / collector on the passenger side. It used to only occur under very heavy load like going up a mountain pass but the gasket must be completely gone because it happens pretty much non-stop now and it's driving me crazy.

We tried to get the nuts/studs to budge and couldn't get them to even with generous amounts of heat, PB blaster and deep creep, and the breaker bar with a long cheater. Since it seems like I have to pull the manifold and y pipe to even think about separating them or replacing them, is it worth investing in a set of headers?

I have searched and know they don't add a lot of power for NA trucks but I could eventually add a SC. Either way I only have about 150k on my engine and plan to keep the truck forever.

 

If you think you need a replacement try and find some OEM Manifolds. Justify the price for some headers maybe. TRD ones will be pretty spendy. Maybe e-bay find for some OEM replacements?

 

i snapped all but one stud off getting the y pipe off. tried welding a nut on remaining stud half a dozen times and they still didn't budge. ended up buying a 12" long drill bit and drilled out the studs (which was hell as they were super hard). its only on by 2 studs even now.

i was looking into the headers on ebay which appear to be jba copies and quite cheap. id like to try a set if the shipping to canada didn't cost as much as the headers themselves.

 

Yeah I checked and I'm looking at about $100+ for the used parts on ebay + the cost of gaskets. I might be able to find some locally for less but I'm not sure.

When I bought the truck it was only on by 2 studs, I ended up putting a bolt through the third and it helped a little but but over time I think all of the paper gasket material has disintegrated.

I came across those and actually posted a thread earlier: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ebay-stainless-3-4l-headers.493279/

I am curious to see if anyone is running them. I googled and couldn't find anything about them but there were some honda forum posts suggesting that the brand was acceptable quality.

 

yea ive seen quite a few good reviews of those headers but nothing taco specific. my buddy had a set on a honda and a saturn without issues.
Remember the install will be alot easier with these because the oem crossover is all one piece. it can be such a pain that the jba instructions just tell you to cut it into.