beachfun

Buying a new set of Kooks... I actually like the look or the raw stainless. Only reason I am thinking about coating is for heat reduction under the hood. Does it make a huge difference?

Looking for some opinions....

robert miller

YES HAVE IT DONE WILL HELP A TON ON THE HEAT.. JUST MAKE SURE INSIDE HAVE BEEN DONE ALSO. Robert

turbocvette

Call Melrose and see the headers they sell. Very nice quality and tell them Rich McDonald sent you for a discount.
After seeing tons of their headers etc i can personally vouch for the quality, and the performance of exhaust systems they sell.

Patches

I always have at least the headers ceramic-coated. In fact, I have a set of LG Pro's getting coated right now at a local shop that specializes in high-performance coatings. I'm having the entire system done because they have great prices and I didn't have to pay for shipping. The coating definitely makes a difference in underhood heat.

One caveat: The tech atthe coaters warne against dyno tuning the car with coated headers saying it could rung the finsh. I've never heard or done this before so can't confirm.

blown81bu

My ARH 2" are at the coater also..inside n out..def recommend it

beachfun

Thanks guys for the info. Three more questions if you don't mind...

Does coating headers reduce heat equal to wrapping them?

What coater are you using and what are they charging?

Anybody coat their x-pipe to help with interior temp/hot console?

Trying to keep things cooler for hot humid summer days..

Quick 06

Personally think it isn't necessary. I've pushed my car hard at HPDE's and other sporting events. Kooks long tubes/X pipe 600+ without undo problems with header temps. My tunnel has never felt especially hot either. I also personally like the looks of my burnished headers.

ajrothm

I had my ARH 2" headers coated by Jet Hot with their 1300* coating, and added the 1400* top coat for color... I noticed NO difference in under the hood temps honestly... They did look 100x better though then the bare stainless that turns to a brown, spotty looking mess in less then a year.

After about 2k miles, my coating started to blister and fade, I sent them back to jet hot and they sent them to their science lab to analyze the coating under a microscope and do some testing on it... They determined I had exceeded the 1300* rating... They upgraded me to their TRUE, pure ceramic coating that is 2500* ($800 coating) , then put my silver pearl top coat over it, They covered everything and only charged me $140.... that included shipping.... This coating is super thick and they say I WILL see a reduction in temps under the hood...

We'll see...

I will say Jet Hot has outstanding customer service after the sale.

StealthFRC

When my car was supercharged I ran kooks 1 7/8 headers un coated, never had an issue. IMO it's for looks only and only necessary on a turbo car.
After thousands of miles they still looked great and got that sweet looking blue tinge to them.

ajrothm

Here is a new ARH vs a 2 year old ARH with 7k miles

Brown and $hitty looking in no time.

Here was after I had them coated the first time with the 1400* stuff.


Now the 2500* stuff is the same color, but a much more coarse finish and its definitely thicker.

BLOWNBLUEZ06

I'm with AJROTHM. Raw stainless looks nice, but the 304 grade stainless that everybody uses won't look good for long and from the bad looks also comes a slow deterioration from carbide precipitation, which will eventually destroy your headers. With 304, the design operation temp max is 800 degrees. They use it because it's a good balance between cost and performance. If cost were not an issue, they would all use 321 stainless, which has double the temperature values.

All this means^^^ coat them!

algZO6

had mine done by swaintech. they aren't the prettiest but its supposed to be the best. i topped them off with black VHT header paint. made a huge difference in heat.

jhopper408

I have Kooks long tubes and it never gets to hot.

Chicago1

I had mine wrapped in the titatnium stuff. To much $$$ for coating IMO

Smoove

SS holds up better to coating...then it holds up to wrapping. Wrappin on SS,...sometimes will cause cracking...however, on MS not so much. SS, likes to be raw, or coated, typically.

dankhts

Mine are done inside and out right to the start of the cat-back......they look like new after several years of use and a lot of drag racing...

SteveDoten@ARH

This is direct from the owner of ARH (Nick).

Swain Tech white coating is the be all/end all of coating if you must coat headers.

About .05% of the headers we sell go to the coater.

ajrothm

Here is a couple pics of my new JetHot 2500* pure ceramic coating with the Silver pearlescent top coat. They are coated on the inside as well but only with the 1400* coating as they can't effectively shoot the 2500 ceramic fully thru the tubes... So they do the inside with the 1400*, then the outside is the 2500* pure ceramic, finished with the 1400* color top coat.





The finish is a little more coarse with the pure ceramic then the regular 1400* coating but....Its supposed to retain like 90% more heat inside the pipe and not change colors or fade... We'll see... Its about $800 for this coating normally, so I'll be a good test subject for the group.

a/c man

Man those look sexy!! Does your wife know you had that header in the bed last pic looks like a mattress in the back ground

blown81bu

heres mine got them back saturday