I am reaserching options for Longtube headers for my 2004 Z06. I would like to hear from people who have changed out the headers on their cars and if they spent extra to have them coated.

Thanks for any information you can provide.

 

I have American Racing Headers (ARH) long tubes stainless steel with high flow cats and fit and finish is great. No need for coating. With a tune they make great HP.

 

Ceramic Coating will not turn and lowers engine heat off the headers.

 

Kooks Racing Headers with coating on my 2004 Z06.

 

Stainless LG Pros, with 'Jet Hot' ceramic coating

frank

 

stainless headers both heat reflective coated by a local guy even with race abuse the under hood temps dropped and plug wires live like stock..no more melted wires or plastic under hood clips wire looms... plus the header still looks silver after 2 years of use

 

if you are going to do headers i suggest you buy it from marylandspeed. they send out the headers to the best ceramic coating facility called (JETHOT). It took like 6 weeks to come since jet hot is always backed up but it is worth the wait. marylandspeed is a vendor here and they also give coupons if you are a corvetteforum member

https://marylandspeed.com/

 

I have coated Kooks from Maryland Speed. I don't have much experience with non coated headers, but I can tell you that my experience is similar to the poster above. No burned up plug wires or need for shielding to prevent burning them. And they still look brand new!

 

My engine is fully polished. I put on mirror polished stainless headers uncoated. For a while the headers looked great started to turn purple/blue (pretty) but then progressed to turned tones of brown getting darker and darker.

Took them off and had them ceramic coated. From past experience with ceramic they will turn a dull silver/gray at worst and sometimes will stay kinda shiny. Much better than dull brown.

 

We sell tons of coated Kooks at really great prices give us a call @443-730-9428 or check out our current sales on our site linked below.

https://marylandspeed.com/demon-i-24.html

If you call we can do an even better deal than we can list on our site. Ask for Kristie

 

what about Cerakote guys? I used it once on a cast manifold for a big turbo 1.8t audi.

i sprayed it on with a spray gun, and its been two years and it still looks really good. The color is black tho, so your gonna have to live with that...

did not measure any temps tho...but product states it has similar result to Jethot..

anyways, i suggest that its pretty good.

G

 

I didn't think cerakote had any thermal properties, it's just a durable coating??? Maybe I'm wrong you do use it on firearms & they can def get hot....

Anyhow - I've had headers on 4 vehicles now. Junk pace-setters black painted on an old '94 Silverado - peeled & rusted within 2.5 years, but wicked cheap didn't care. On my GTO I had uncoated 409 series stainless (chrome steel, no nickel. but still much more corrosive resistant than mild or aluminized steel) shorty headers that I had on for 3 years while driving it including driving it in 1 new England winter - they pitted & looked oxidized/dull but did not rust - however that GTO (A4 5.7 car) would get HOT under the hood, heat soak is a known issue particularly on LS1/LS2 GTO's but I imagine the shorty headers added to the problem.

On my G8 GT I had JBA headers in 409 stainless but had them ceramic coated because a) it was a daily driver & I ran snow tires on it & would regularly take it up to VT skiing - & I drove the car to 150,000 miles....100k of which the headers were on & I wanted them to last & look dedcent b) I found a fairly close shop that specialized in ceramic coating parts, c) I learned from my GTO days that heat soak can occur w/ these LSx cars.

W/ my C5Z I have ARH 304 stainless headers. Since I don't use it in winter, & since it is 304/18-8 stainless (contains 8% NI - WILL NOT pit or corrode), & since I don't regularly road race the car I figured no need to coat. My tuner said wouldn't be an issue. I take the car on long road trips, drive it hard, never have had an issue.

I would coat them if you're not getting 304 stainless (although on a corvette that's kind cheap IMO) or if you plan on tracking the car extensively where any heat buildup mitigation helps.


If you do get them coated not a bad idea to go someplace local & really stress getting a good coat on the inside of the pipes especially @ the collectors this is where you get a lot of moisture buildup & also generate the highest temps.

 

I've had headers for about 35k miles on my Z06 uncoated. I have changed the wires once due to one shorting on the primary, but that was less than 5000 miles ago and they were perfect up until then. I use copper plugs and replace them fairly often, so I don't mind the need to replace the wires when I do the plugs anyways. I keep a few extra wires in the trunk in case something were to happen while I was on a long trip, and other than that I don't worry a bit.

To each their own, but my underhood temps are great, no cooked connectors or anything, so I'll stick with my uncoated headers!

 

I had my most recent set coated locally and I saved about $100 over sending them out to jethot and also saved the time of shipping back and forth and they turned out great... the hottest point is going to be the first bend in the primaries right after the exhaust exits the heads... if you have the chrome looking coating and drive conservatively then the coating should hold up fine on those areas but if you drive the car aggressively and get them good and hot the coating will turn a dull silver color and be a little rough feeling afterwards... it will still look good but it's something to be aware of