Ceramic coated headers - worth extra cost?

[Forg]

I have had uncoated stainless headers under bonnet for last 6 years.

So I guess the protection conversation is now irrelevant.

I don't think so ... it happens over time, it doesn't melt everything straight away, I reckon you're buying yourself a little bit of time on a bunch of stuff under there.

All those VG30DETT Z32 300ZX's / Fairlady Z's lasted 'til quite a way outta warranty before all the electrickery started giving trubble!

 

[Ginger Beer]

I like ceramic coating, but I also use my car occasionally for drags or circuit fun days. Although don't have it on my current headers (but will at some point).

Have you melted as much as @someguy360 ?


Whoops, too soon??

LOL, not to that extent, I've melted vacuum lines on waste gates, and needed to replace some wiring though

You could feel the damage the heat did to the vacuum line, where it broke the line, it was pretty heat damaged and was rock hard, and if you bent it even a little it would snap, about 1 foot away the line was like new

Heat and rubber/plastic are not good bed fellows, the heat from the head hardens the wires plastic insulation for the coil packs where it runs on the LS1, the wiring insulation on mine cracked when I pulled the connection to the bank of coils off to clean the rocker covers, I found a used harness that was only marginally better to replace it with for now, but, the car is 21 years old with 150k km on it

I'm going to replace the whole engine harness when I finally pull the pin and get a Haltech Elite 2500 t and their fancy pants engine harness, but I am still waiting on that particular slush fund to grow to about $10k to account for parts, labour and tuning, bring on tax time, tax time is basically free money for the cars slush fund

 

[07GTS]

i used these guys https://racecoatings.com.au/ i think they sell the dpe style and can coat them for u all in one cost

 

[panhead]

I had my Hurricane's coated inside & out at PROcoat in Wyong on the NSW Central Coast.

http://www.procoat.com.au/

.

 

[RevNev]

I don't know of a stock car that doesn't have a heat sheild over the exhaust manifold for thermal protection, if they didn't think it was worth it they wouldn't fit them

I was just intending to say exactly that! The HSV headers have heat shields bolted to them and I'd certainly ceramic coat headers for the thermal protection if nothing else. Long tubes typically being a tighter fit is probably more reason to minimise heat transfer in the engine bay and perhaps the firewall area.

 

[Ginger Beer]

I was just intending to say exactly that! The HSV headers have heat shields bolted to them and I'd certainly ceramic coat headers for the thermal protection if nothing else. Long tubes typically being a tighter fit is probably more reason to minimise heat transfer in the engine bay and perhaps the firewall area.

For my 1999 NB MX5 I ceramic coated a stock 2001 header "because budget race car build" and they were know to perform pretty much the same as aftermarket headers, I ground off the heat sheild tabs as it didn't come with the heat sheild ($20 header at the wreckers) and then sent them off to be cleaned up and coated

They were short"ish" 4-1 which performed well enough for hundreds of laps around Wakefield Park and Marulan

Not mine, but looked like this >

 

[RevNev]

For my 1999 NB MX5 I ceramic coated a stock 2001 header "because budget race car build" and they were know to perform pretty much the same as aftermarket headers, I ground off the heat sheild tabs as it didn't come with the heat sheild ($20 header at the wreckers) and then sent them off to be cleaned up and coated

They were short"ish" 4-1 which performed well enough for hundreds of laps around Wakefield Park and Marulan

Not mine, but looked like this > View attachment 252293

They look good! I like the matte finish coatings and the darker colours like panhead posted (above) more so than the traditional polished/chrome look. They're similar to the coating I've got on the 340 headers I fitted to my Redline Ute.

 

[panhead]

They look good! I like the matte finish coatings and the darker colours like panhead posted (above) more so than the traditional polished/chrome look. They're similar to the coating I've got on the 340 headers I fitted to my Redline Ute.

That polished/chrome look is referred to as 'Bright' ceramic and it's what I used to always get done to mine but after time they all eventually started to tarnish.

I changed to the darker colour which is 'Titanium' ceramic for something different plus it has a higher heat properties than the 'Bright' and happened to be a few dollars cheaper than the 'Bright' coating.







.

 

[RevNev]

That polished/chrome look is referred to as 'Bright' ceramic and it's what I used to always get done to mine but after time they all eventually started to tarnish.

Yes, the bright ceramic does tarnish and after discovering the greater durability of the darker colours we used on a couple of race engine headers, I haven't done the bright ceramic on my own cars since. We blew a power steering hose on a race car once and sprayed oil all over the bright ceramic headers, and that visually ruined them with unremovable oil stains.

The only negative with a ceramic coated header, is they're a mongrel to weld if they crack or need repair. Even when it seems that you've ground off the coating successfully, both MIG and TIG will tend to bubble up and leave pin holes nonetheless.

 

[lmoengnr]

Yes, the bright ceramic does tarnish and after discovering the greater durability of the darker colours we used on a couple of race engine headers, I haven't done the bright ceramic on my own cars since. We blew a power steering hose on a race car once and sprayed oil all over the bright ceramic headers, and that visually ruined them with unremovable oil stains.

The only negative with a ceramic coated header, is they're a mongrel to weld if they crack or need repair. Even when it seems that you've ground off the coating successfully, both MIG and TIG will tend to bubble up and leave pin holes nonetheless.

Have coatings improved? Wasn't that many years ago that the coating businesses wouldn't do secondhand headers as they couldn't guarantee the coating would stick.