Ceramic -vs- Stainless headers?

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Ceramic if you can afford them.

Keeps things much much cooler under the hood, can barely feel the heat near the headers.

I keep telling myself to do ceramic but something else always comes up.
 
stainless blues, just like bike pipes. They dont rust...bad. Ceramic is very nice, just wrap them while installing so you dont scratch them.
 
One other possible benefit to ceramic is it seems like they clean up real easy too. I know I've gotten my fair share of oil and whatnot on them when sticking my hands in the bay to fix things and they usually just wipe right off with a rag, don't need to scrub or anything. And they keep things nice and cool, almost thought cylinders weren't firing when I put a temp gun on them on intial start, lol. My Vette with black headers runs maybe 800 degrees or so on the gun, the ceramics run around 300-350, couldn't belive it.
 
Beware that a ceramic coated header can rust as well. I don't know the specific cases of why or when they do. Seems like most have good luck with them and some don't. I have TTi headers and they supposedly weren't supposed to rust. Yeah, they are rusty and look like crap. The other bad part is that I'd have to pull the motor to replace them! They still do their part on keeping the engine heat down though. I will give them that.
 
A racer I used to hang around with had his headers Jet-Hot coated. The finish was beyond durable, a certain someone dropped the headers more than once with no damage to the finish. The finish was only a few years old but there was no rust on them........
 
clinteg said:
Beware that a ceramic coated header can rust as well. I don't know the specific cases of why or when they do. Seems like most have good luck with them and some don't. I have TTi headers and they supposedly weren't supposed to rust. Yeah, they are rusty and look like crap. The other bad part is that I'd have to pull the motor to replace them! They still do their part on keeping the engine heat down though. I will give them that.
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x2 My TTI's started to rust/corrode about a year and 1/2 after installation.
Yea they "warranty it" but who wants to take em back out and box em up/pay for shipping back to TTI to see if they will honor wtty, then have to re-install. What a hassle. Maybe Im just lazy?
They dont look bad- but was expecting the ceramic coating to last alot longer. The main problem areas are where the top of the header tube next to the welds where they attach to the heads.

I do live in Fla about a mile from beach so Im sure the salt air has alot to do with it. But still... they werent cheap and I expected better quality.
:wack:
 
Unholy f***stick! $2700 for a set of headers, damn! Maybe for a Ferrari but not for my duster.
 
Couple of the guys I talked to about headers for my nightmare,if/when I ever get that far said that stainless would probably be the way to go for me. Keep in mind that both shops I have spoken to said that they would be building the headers so the collectors are slip on to ease header installation. Keep in mind that this for a car with second generation HEMI....
 
1970Duster said:
Unholy f***stick! $2700 for a set of headers, damn! Maybe for a Ferrari but not for my duster.
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Keep in mind that he is one of the best header builders on the country. His headers are built to extract every last bit of power, not a general one size fits all TTI. I have spoken to a few people that have his headers and they have told me they are worth every penny he gets for them. Again, these are not street car headers but competition headers. Have you ever looked into what a set of custom competition headers cost? Burns Stainless gets over $300 for stainless merge collectors.....that is for one...
 
Reminds me of the old axiom "Speed costs money, how fast do you want to go?"
 
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