Coating Headers

[Mrmonk7663]

Anyone ever coated their own headers at home with good results? I want something to keep rust at bay. I know ceramic is the stuff to have but for the price tag it is out of my leauge. The most I want to spend on this project is $100. I picked up a set of longtubes for really cheap for my 4.6, and I want to coat them but I don't want to spend alot of money, especially since for the price of most coating places you can almost buy new headers. Any help would be wonderful. Thanks yall.

Mike Reese

[89 coupe]

Here's my .02 on this, and it I don't have any long term experience with (how much longer the headers will last).

I would save up and spend the money to get them coated properly.
I have tried painting my own headers, seen other's try different things, etc.
None of this worked. In my experience you might as well put them on unpainted and let them rust.
Alex, a friend of mine, used Polydyn. They already re-coated them once and it is better than nothing but does not hold up under extreme heat.
Bearing and piston coating from them is good stuff though.

I used a shop in Humble and am pretty happy with the results. The problem with them is they are out of business.
Most everyone I have heard from uses Jet Hot. They have to be shipped to them. Pain in the a##.
The benefits are headers last longer and have WAY less heat under the hood.
I got mine coated black which was a 2000 degree coating. The benefits for me is I can pull the plug wires and check my plugs right after a run and not get burned from HOT HEADERS,
This alone was worth the money for me.
The other benefit is a claim that keeping the heat in the headers helps the exhaust flow faster and improves horsepower. I really don't believe it could be more than a few horses but you never know. May be worth 0, 20, or 50 on a 1000 horse motor and $300.00 is not a bad investment for that much more.
So for $300.00 you get
1. Headers that last longer
2. Headers that cool off real quick
3. Probably some more power

Now all you need to do is find an extra $300.00 :rolleyes:

[Chad82GT]

I'll be putting JetHot 2000 on all of the hot parts of my turbo kit, and possibly chrome on the cold side.

One thing I am wondering is if it's possible to coat the INSIDE of the hot parts and if that would keep the pipe cool enough for the shiney coating to stick to the outside. Would be the best of both worlds... great heat reduction and bling. I'll be talking to JH about it and see what they think. Only downside I can think of is that if it flakes, the pieces will end up in the turbos, which might do bad things.

[Mrmonk7663]

Yah, $300 gets me headers that last but I got the headers on a trade, of stuff I didnt need, I'm not out any money, and to spend $300extra on Mac Longtubes I can't justify it in my head. Funds are tight and I won't be able to swing that. There has to be an alternative.