Reviews for Banks Power 51327 Revolver Header for 91-99 Jeep Wrangler YJ, TJ, Cherokee XJ & Comanche MJ with 4.0L

Perfect fit. Provides a better sound

you are the best

Yep. Bought these to rid the jeep of the annoying exhaust leak from a old cracked factory manifold. Just like I assume why many others are here looking at new headers. BTW I have a 1999 XJ. Anyway I really had my heart set on a doug thorley header. I have always had great results in the past with the tri-y design and it’s reported increase in torque. However with the DT’s you do have to weld the down pipe to the manifold. As time goes on I get farther and farther away from my shop class welding skills. So to avoid that added hassle I went with these as they were direct bolts on.

Oh course I was looking for a high quality, made in the USA header. Zero interest in cheap overseas junk. So thank you Banks.

Now I bought this and it sat in the box for months. Mainly I was mentally trying to get up for the butt whip of a job I knew this could be, and it was. Doing this solo with standard tools in the garage, I found success by breaking this job down over two days.

First day disassembly, removal of both manifolds, and cleaning all the carbon and soot from the intake manifold. Yes there was a bunch. If you choose to clean that intake prepare by getting many various length brushes and a 6 pack of spray can intake cleaner. I used all 6. However I must admit that when I do get the bit in my teeth, I go all the way. When I finished cleaning the intake, it is brand new level of clean. It needed to be done. Just a pain with the curved runners. Anyway back to the header…. As you know and have hopefully watched online videos on, the install is a real SOB.

Day two, the install. This is the pain, no doubt. Torquing the hard to reach bolts around cylinder 4-6 you hear so much about is the part of the install that will have you recounting all the cuss words you leaned in the Navy. However I must say with zero speciality tools you can do this install as well. Patience, persistence, and focus will get you there.

Build quality and fit of the banks unit seemed as expected. Very good all around. I did take a grinder to clean up a few welds, but otherwise it’s a quality unit.

So why only 4 stars? Well it fixed the leak. Again that’s great. Maybe throttle response improved? However I must say I can’t tell if there was any improvement in power, and my mileage stayed the same. I’m sure the dyno numbers in the chart are accurate, but as someone else mentioned, who runs this motor at 5k revs to feel that additional 22+ horsepower? The improvement one is supposed to see where the motor usually runs, like at 2 or 3k is just hard to feel by seat of the pants.

In the end I would recommend this quality item to anyone wanting to get rid of an old cracked manifold. Just don’t expect so awesome new exhaust tone, or some crazy increase in mileage. It’s quality, it works and that’s enough.

No

Overall, this is a great header. The kit comes with new bolts to mount header to downpipe and the gaskets are both good quality. It has instructions which are good if you're unsure of what to do (but you're a jeeper... you know what to do) so for completeness, 5 star. The fitment is about as perfect as it could be, intake and exhaust flanges are the same size and everything lines up quite easily, however... the 2nd from last bolt on the bottom side is a total nightmare to get to with any type of socket so I had to resort to a wrench stuck on the end of another wrench to tighten it down. Fitment gets 4 star. Materials and construction are good but not great. It arrives looking fairly ugly with stickers and stuff stuck to it, but it is stained steel nonetheless. The welds on mine at the ports were a little rough so I hit them with a file to deburr the chunks sticking out past the flange and then scuffed the flange with a scotch Brite to get the brown crap off the flange before mounting but the overall construction is strong, dramatically more so than factory. 4 stars. And the sound and performance (the real reason to get it, right?) Although it didn't give me a more aggressive sound at idle it did eliminate my exhaust leak (which had progressed from tick tick tick to over years of disregard a steady roar from literally every weld having cracked at least halfway across the pipes) and delivered a bit deeper tone in my exhaust. I gained likely a few horse but not likely the claimed 22 (because nobody runs a I6 at 5000 rpm intentionally), but my throttle response picked up immediately and gave me a bit more torque when revving and driving. 4 stars. Overall it's a good header. But I'll include some advice. If you bolt this on and your idle goes through the roof check EVERY manifold mounting bolt both on exhaust and intake for tightness both visually and by torque. Ensure they all seal tightly because if you dont, it could run right past your redline or give you an idle of 2200 rpm. If you are considering this, I would recommend having a friend help, because unless you're disconnecting everything and also have a shop with everything you need, you're gonna have some troubles. Tools to have obviously are sockets wrenches lights screwdrivers scrapers. I would also recommend bungees and an overhead beam or something to hold intake manifold up out of your way as you clean your gasket surfaces. Make sure you have something to plug off the ports too. I didn't when I did this and so I wound up using masking paper and estimating my torque on the bolts. I also replaced my engine mounts to prevent future damage to the new header and tighten up the sloppy garbage the factory includes and went with the red prothane poly mounts which gave me even more body roll at loading and a touch of body shake (nothing to be concerned about though) and the swap turned out great. Just make sure to take it outside your garage before firing it first time off because she smoked like a barn fire for about 15 minutes.