ive heard about coating headers with a ceramic coating, i know it doesnt allow a lot of heat transfer...but is it worth it? is it worth teh money to coat it..and what other advantages or disadvantages does it have over normal headers, my friend had his mr2 exhaust headers ceramic coated, he never gave me a direct answer as to why..so im assumin he dont know jack about it, just wonderin to see if any of you are running ceramic coated headers.. any info would be great...thanks

A few good reasons I can think of to have coatings on the exhaust header are:
- significantly reduce underhood temperatures
- hold the heat inside the header which improves turbo spool up
- reduce header corrosion
- depending on the coating, it can look good

so it seems as if it is pretty helpful then...i will definitely take a look into this thanks bro

I would definitely recommend it. If you find a brand of header that doesnt offer ceramic coating, you can probably find a local coater to do it for you...

yes, i must concur. for headers/manifolds/downpipes that are of 304 stainless compostion or mild steel, i would recommend coating the inside and outside. but if you have a real 321 stainless manifold or other parts, i would say just coat the inside and polish the 321. the finish of 321 is simply gorgeous and i wouldnt cover it up w/ cermachrome or anything else.

yea i was thinkin about getting a header then having someone coat it...i might go with the 321 s/s cause i just want the inside coated...i dunno does it make a difference if the outside is coated or not?

maybe even the exhaust side of the turbo?

mmm thats true i can do that too haha i might end up doing the whole exhaust sytem while im at it

if a little ceramic coating is good, more should be better. if you just coat the inside, itll work well. if you coat the outside too, itll work... weller? however, i just thought of leaving the 321ss raw on the outside because it looks prettier than the aluminum luster that ceramic coating creates. the hotside on my T88 is coated, but its a cast iron gray. it looks clean and simple. i think im going to build my own manifold with pie cut sections and coat the inside to smooth out the flow where the joints are. plus, itll keep all the heat from penetrating into the tubing.

mm i was thinking the outside ceramic coated too...but then i might just use heatwrap on it...might save a little money too, it seems simpler, ill probably put the heat wrap on the outside of the manifold, but coat the inside ceramic, and i want to use heat wrap for the turbo too and maybe again coat the inside of that...thats my plan for now

heat wrap is cool and all, except it sheds glass fibers all the time and retains moisture. i dont have to tell you that glass fibers embedded in your forearm do not feel nice.

yea i know how that feels...ive worked with fiberglass before... its not the most pleasing feeling i can tell you that....but one thing that surprised me is that you said it retains moisture...i dint know that but it kinda makes sense...if its used as an insulator it should retain the moisture...but if my headers are s/s it probably wont matter...or would it...

you could use the wrap on a stainless manifold and it shouldnt really harm it much at all. stainless is good at resisiting aqueous corrosion, specifically 321. i think im going to use 321 and build a sectioned manifold for my car. itll probably take a good month or two, but itll be exactly how i want it. you could probably run your car under salt water with 321 stainless and not have to worry about any sort of header corrosion, with or without the wrap. the only thing i have aganst header wrap is that its not pretty. its more of an "all business" look, which i like... just, not that style.

haha my car is all about the bizness...i dont for that bling bling im more... conservative...with a subtle appearance

oh i forgot to say...i am running a 321 s/s manifold...so i dont think moisture will be the problem so i should be ok..

im not all aboot the blingery, but i dont want it to look trashy either. shiney stuff is good, but so is powedercoated stuff. even if its just an aluminum look, id much rather have a Fresh aluminum look rather than dingy and stained aluminum. you know?

the one thing that will have to be shiney is my WG dump tube and exhaust flapper cap.

yea thats pretty understandable...id like to have the engine bay look nice, but im all about performance...if it looks like crap and theres no way around it but it gives me what i want...ill put it in...

really? cuz i could make you a rust-scaled manifold, corroded turbo and WG covered in soot that would make 1000rwhp, spool up at 2000 and get you 25mpg. do u want it? youd have to run PVC ic pipes that are unpainted with glue/primer seeping from each joint. :snork_lac

i joke, i joke. i do know what you mean though. Function over form is something i tend to follow. if it does its job well, it's appearance is low priority for me... i just dont want it to look like shit.

mmm that rusty ol' 1000hp setup sounds very tempting...pvc piping... looks like i might have to put in an order

lol.. i bathed the piping in salt water for the authentic "distressed" theme. i saw christopher Lowell do it on that decorating show.

LMAO. You guys make me laugh. but yeah ceramic coating good. I'm using it inside and out for a full turbo kit that im building. it works out pretty slick plus it keeps the heat flowing in the right direction rather than heat sinking into everything else under the hood. that means lower intake temps and thats always good.

hahaha the "distressed" theme...i like that ill keep that in mind, but i think ill change the plan a little and ceramic coat the inside of the manifold but heat wrap the outside, and ceramic coat the turbo...in and out...how does that sound? sexy? i know...thats wut i thought too

Yeah, I ceramicoated the hot and cold side of the C7, and the inside and outside of the header. When I get them installed, we'll see how it spools. Until then, it's a hell of a pretty paperweight.