allright, got the install completed. FYI drive around with just the headers for a few minutes, preferably in a parking lot, it's really fun setting off alarms. (Don't worry I hooked everything else up in short order, without the cat and muffler it was obnoxiously loud).If anyone else feels like pursuing the headers option in the future here's a couple things to look out for.
Cat-back, this was pretty bad on mine, the muffler actually disconnected from the resonator because it rusted all the way through the connection in the past 16 years of the trucks life. This caused the whole assembly to be out of place when i tried hooking up the headers and I thought the downpipe on the headers was too long for at least an hour before i finally realized that the exhaust brackets in back were just all whacked out.
When you get the headers installed let the engine idle for a few minutes, lots of smoke will start spewing out, I was freaking out for a second, thought i did something wrong and sprung a horrific leak. Once I realized it wasn't exhaust I was still confused, a friend was there with me and pointed out it was probably just the paint burning off, which it was.
Other than that though the install went pretty good. Everything fit fine and no real fabrication was necessary, i think i ended up removivng one original exhaust bracket right before the cat because it was in the way of the new routing, but with the way the headers are set up and where other brackets are it wasn't necessary to have a bracket there anyways. Truck sounds pretty good too, actually a bit quieter at low rpms, and a deeper sounds all through the rpms. Couldn't tell you if it made any more power since the truck wasn't running well before the switch, but at $30 ovver the price of an oem manifold I'd say if you need to replace the part, headers are probably a solid choice.
