Schumacher header exhaust coating

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440DART1970

440DART1970

1970 Dart 446ci Swinger
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I'm about to buy the exhaust headers for my 71 Dart Abody big block swap from schumacher creative services.
Has anybody use the raw headers and painted them or used the chrome or ceramic?
Budget says go raw or at least Chrome but is the ceramic coating needed or that good??

Pros and cons? Raw VS Chrome .
 
I high heat painted mine then exhaust wrapped them to keep the engine bay heat down, seems to hold up so far.
 
I'm going to say this once. Drop the extra coin for the ceramic coating. You don't want chrome and you don't want to paint your own.
 
Know a few guys that paint them using Eastwood stuff. They love it. Makes touch ups easy.
 
Chrome only looks good the day you buy them. It doesnt like high heat. Exhaust tips, motorcycle mufflers, yes. Straight off the cylinder head, no.
 
Spend the money to have them coated inside and out. The inner coating drops engine bay temps dramatically and at the very least you want them coated on the inside. I don't wrap my exhaust anymore, because I've had it cause rust.

I have had great results with cleaning the exterior very well with carb or brake cleaner and then spraying VHT High Temp paint on them. It is easy to touch up too. I have even top coated TTI's silver ceramic with VHT black High Temp paint and have excellent results. I can touch them up at any time later too, and the touch up blends undetectably with the older paint.
 
440DART1971 said:
I'm about to buy the exhaust headers for my 71 Dart Abody big block swap from schumacher creative services.
Has anybody use the raw headers and painted them or used the chrome or ceramic?
Budget says go raw or at least Chrome but is the ceramic coating needed or that good??

Pros and cons? Raw VS Chrome .
Click to expand...

Unless your car is a complete show car, only driven an and off a trailer, you NEVER EVER EVER want chrome headers. That ridiculous. They'll turn colors immediately and take a crap after that. Then your faced with the daunting expense or having to find someone that can chem strip the chrome off, because you can NOT blast chrome off a header. More specifically, its the nickel plating that is the biggest problem to blast. Trying to do so will quite possible destroy the headers in the end.

So your only real options are raw, BBQ paint or ceramic. Raw doesn't really make a lot of sense if you're concerned with preserving the headers and controlling heat. BBQ / high temp paints may work for a while if your able to prep and coat them perfectly. In the end what typically happens is you'll try coating your headers a few times which may hold for a bit. Then you'll tire of the hassle of going through all that again and break down and have someone ceramic coat them for you. So in the end, it comes down to what your time is worth and how much spare time you have......
 
halifaxhops said:
I high heat painted mine then exhaust wrapped them to keep the engine bay heat down, seems to hold up so far.
Click to expand...

Wrapping mild steel pipes rarely ends well..... Even ceramic coating them first may not always work..... The pipes condensate and begin to rust fairly quickly. Which means you have to inspect them and likely re-coat them fairly regularly.

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Mine are chrome (were on the car when I bought it in 09). Blue chrome doesn't bother me and so far no flaking or rusting but they are showing there age.
 
The "fine print" indicated header wrap would void the warranty outright when I used to do ceramic coatings. The warning came from the supplier, not from me -- I'm just passing it on.
 
I beileve she is saying the ceramic coating would be voided. Other places like Schumacher say it on there site. "Do NOT wrap the coated header" Because the heat held in as well as water damages the coating.

The manufacture of the coatings (that I have read) also state this.
 
rumblefish360 said:
I beileve she is saying the ceramic coating would be voided. Other places like Schumacher say it on there site. "Do NOT wrap the coated header" Because the heat held in as well as water damages the coating.

The manufacture of the coatings (that I have read) also state this.
Click to expand...

Not sure in that she mentioned 3 different things. As a rule, traditional "polished" ceramic coatings should NOT be wrapped or covered with shields as it will prevent the coating from dissipating heat. Best case this would result in a significant dulling of the finish. Worst case you'd see dulling plus small rust blisters appear from over heating (similar to below).

Headers or components coated with 2000F High Temp Ceramics are not phased by wrapping. Though they're still vulnerable to some minor rusting if they are porous steel or cast iron parts.....

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I've used wrap in a variety of applications. The only one I've ever seen live was stainless steel headers which aren't currently available for us. Great for racing and for applications where you just don't care if and when they go. Install a set of TTI's and you will realize you want them to last as long as the engine does.
 
Have your headers built outta stainless. Between my exhaust and coating guys...I have systems that'll never "crap-out". I have both ceramic/mild steel, and stainless stuff.

Here's a set of ceramic-coated [2-step]headers that got a butt-load of oil dumped on them[blown head gasket]...and what they looked like after a 1/2-hour and some 3XXX steel-wool with some thinner. That was 2010....and they still look like new.

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I wonder if you were willing to pay the extra coin if TTI would make you a set out of stainless?
 
You can ask, but I doubt it. I'm fortunate to have an exhaust-artist within an hour of my home.
 
If it's in the budget, then buy of have coated. If you have more time than money you could also try a DIY coating like Chromex. Has to be baked and polished.

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