long tube headers ceramic coating
Melting Slicks
Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 3,153
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From: Rio Rancho, New Mexico
C6 of Year Finalist (appearance mods) 2019
Nah. People have been running headers without ceramic coating for decades. It does help with under hood temps a bit, and keeps them looking pretty, but not necessary. 
No Hostility Be Happy
Joined: Aug 2018
Posts: 10,061
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From: South Hill Wa
2022 C5 of the Year Finalist - Modified
2021 C5 of the Year Finalist - Modified
If it were necessary you would be reading countless threads about failures every day.
I don't think you have made a mistake at all. Are some coatings slightly beneficial? sure, but certainly not necessary.
I had several cars with longtubes and I don't coat them. Plus I like the look of a nice tarnished stainless header. Especially when it's natural from heat and not from road grime and filthy engines.
I don't think you have made a mistake at all. Are some coatings slightly beneficial? sure, but certainly not necessary.
I had several cars with longtubes and I don't coat them. Plus I like the look of a nice tarnished stainless header. Especially when it's natural from heat and not from road grime and filthy engines.
Banned Scam/Spammer
Joined: May 2007
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From: Machineguns, because I don’t compromise
The 50th thread at least on this topic. Some of the threads several pages long.
I’ve posted pictures in past threads.
Search. Plenty of reading out there.
I’ve posted pictures in past threads.
Search. Plenty of reading out there.
Supporting Vendor
Joined: Nov 2007
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From: San Jose CA
St. Jude Donor '11
I would say it's not mandatory but it does help.... headers in general will create more heat but it shouldn't be alot more. Is the car stock outside of the headers?
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From: San Jose CA
St. Jude Donor '11
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Last edited by TPSMak; Mar 9, 2019 at 07:17 PM.
Team Owner
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 30,350
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From: Bonita Springs, Florida
I didn't want to take the chance and had my headers ceramic coated. I use Taylor ThunderVolt 50 10.4mm spark plug wires which can withstand heat up to 600 degrees F plus for extra precaution I added spark plug wire heat shields over each wire for additional heat protection of up to 1800 degrees F in case of contact with the header tubes. I also installedvelcro heat protection for the starter wires and the brake lines along with some reflective heat tape for electrical connectors. If you're concerned about the extra heat then I suggest at least adding plug wire heat shields/socks and heat protection for the starter wires and connectors near the header tubes.
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Joined: Dec 2010
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2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
C5 of Year Winner (performance mods) 2019
in my opinion it is most definitely worth it if you have the extra money to spend... on a stock to lightly modded car the difference is still quite noticeable and if you add a considerable amount of power and/or race the car then it helps even more... over time that extra heat can make wiring and other things become brittle and fall apart or fail, electronics do not like heat!... coating does a good job of keeping the heat in the headers and they will also cool down much faster when the car is shut off... I regret not doing my midpipe but if I have it off again I will probably have it done... look around and see if you can find a coater locally, it is pretty simple to do and there's no reason it can't be as good of better than the big names like jethot... I had a local place do mine and saved me $50 plus the shipping costs both ways which probably would have been another $50-100
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Safety Car
Joined: Mar 2017
Posts: 3,765
Likes: 938
From: Orlando Florida
Stainless headers or carbon steel headers? It seems highly unlikely now-a-days to be running carbon steel, but if you went with painted headers then ceramic coating would add considerable lifespan.
Safety Car
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 4,203
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From: South Florida
One of the simplest applications of engineering performance is insulating the engine components involved in high energy fluid (air is a fluid).
Heat energy is supplied by fuel. By containing the heat energy within the tube (insulating) it potentially will increase cylinder scavenging and performance, and improve economy.
i.e. ceramic coated and then exhaust wrapped turbines/exhaust components are typical in performance world.
Heat energy is supplied by fuel. By containing the heat energy within the tube (insulating) it potentially will increase cylinder scavenging and performance, and improve economy.
i.e. ceramic coated and then exhaust wrapped turbines/exhaust components are typical in performance world.
Racer
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 369
Likes: 59
From: North Georgia
I recently had my OEM exhaust manifolds off the engine so I port matched the runners to the manifold/head gasket and then had them coated by Jet Hot. The coating holds the temps in so more fuel gets ignited, engine temps go down and it's a rust inhibitor. Plus it looks cool. You can always have it done down the road.
Spaggs
Spaggs
Safety Car
Joined: Mar 2017
Posts: 3,765
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From: Orlando Florida
That sounds very interesting. It would be wonderful to know what kind of performance gains were seen by those two actions, both individually and together. Far too much work and funding to gather the data, of course, but would be awfully fun to know how close to long tubes one could get without having to install long tubes.