Anyone running American Racing Headers without ceramic heat coating. I just ordered the headers and the vendor said they would check with ARH to see if they offer heat coating. I know KOOKS does but went with ARH. Is it eveN necessary with ARH. HOW HOT DOES IT GET WITHOUT

 

typically you either get the coating yourself or the vendor facilitates the process. I have never heard of the manufacturer coating their own headers.

it's a luxury, not a necessity. your car will not go faster with it nor will anything under the hood last "longer." I always coat my headers because you can but it's not a night and day difference and anyone who says it is is smoking the good stuff.

 

Thanks I was just concerned if there would be a over heating issue if I did not coat. I am trying to find someone locally that can coat them. Like you say it is a luxury but seems to be a benefit as well

 

All of the coating is not the same, plus it will keep stuff some what a little cooler under the hood. If you get the stainless headers will not rust so you will be good. Like u was told about I don't see it making the car any faster at all. Again I wouldn't put it on if it was the cheap stuff. Then it cracks & looks like **** also. I did the LG headers & didn't have them coated on the c7. But I did on the c5 when I did the 2 inch tubes due to how lose crap was to every thing...Robert

 

Yeah Robert I also bought the BILLY BOAT fusion gen 3 exhaust with it

 

I have used coated and un-coated headers in the past. Now I would go with coated even if the headers are Stainless Steel.

 

Thank for the reply

 

I would absolutely coat them, I would do anything you can to keep this car cooler. To coat my ARH 2” it was $300

 

I've never noticed much difference in heat between my coated and un-coated headers. Heat shielding will do a lot more, even if it's something as simple as wrapping aluminum foil around portions of the header which are close to heat-sensitive items

 

IMOP...Coating the headers is simply for cosmetics... and I DO like them coated...However, if you are doing it for heat reduction, you are wasting your time and money.

I tested this pretty extensively on my C5Z, I had my headers coated twice by Jet Hot, the second time was an $800 pure ceramic coating (2500*) and a top coat added on it for color. It was .5mm thick. And I still had 700*+ tube temps at idle and the under hood temps were still just as insane as always....NO measurable reduction in under hood temps or radiant heat.

Coating looks great, but it doesn't actually do ****...contrary to popular belief...

Just my opinion, based on my experience and field testing in conjunction with Jet Hot.





I will say, that American Racing headers will turn brown, spotty and shitty looking in NO TIME without the coating....Way worse then other brands I have seen. So if you are using ARH, I'd have them coated because they will look like *** in a month.

 

Anyone who says the Jethot coating is not a big improvement is off there rocker! I have had a few sets uncoated and a few sets coated and the Jethot definitely helps with unhood temps and lesson's the chance of melting wires. Less heat comes off a coated header than non coated I do not uncoated headers anymore. Plus they stay PRETTY! where the uncoated header looks like crap!

I would do JETHOT only the other coatings I tried burn off and don't hold
up.

 

Thanks a lot. You definitely spent the time and money figuring it out. So I guess it really boils down to looks. I guess I will have to coat them for cosmetic reasons alone.

Is that something that someone that powder coats can apply or is it different procedure

 

https://www.jet-hot.com/

 

Yes, for cosmetics, its essential you have them coated....

Here is a new ARH header right next to another ARH that had 8k miles on it:



Here was the headers with the first Jet Hot coating, 1600*, gunmetal grey. The finish was smooth and sexy, very vibrant color. This was beautiful, but dulled out VERY quick, within a few hundred miles, the upper tubes near the head were dull, almost white. I ran them for a few months, then HAD to pull them off to get them redone.


After working with the engineers at Jet Hot, reporting my temp readings of various places and even sending one header off to their lab to be studied, tested, we decided to try the highest temp coating they have.

Here was after I had Jet Hot coat them the second time. This was the 2500* pure ceramic, with a 1600* silver top coat.. This was a very coarse finish that would sand skin off your fingers while changing plugs.


This one held up really well to the temps, but it would chip VERY easy, the coating is very hard but brittle...(like ceramic, duh...) and you couldn't clean them because the finish was so coarse.....Anything that did get on them, would eventually burn off with no staining though.

This car idled at 700-800* header tube temps when running in closed loop at stoich. It was making around 850 rwhp most of the time with this coating.

 

You can check out some of the technical papers if you wish, like the one below. They got something like only an average of a 1% reduction in heat transfer with a coating which was much thicker than what is used on headers. But if you believe it works better than that, the belief probably increases the effectiveness.

https://ac.els-cdn.com/S187770581503...86f586df140ebe

 

I had my BBE headers ceramic coated at a local place to me, literally drop shipped them there from Billy boat. I then just drove there to pick up the finished product. For me, the combo of looks and any heat control was well worth the few hundred...

One thing I finally did do was take out the weather stripping at the cowl before my last track day, and while it was a cooler day, the coolant and oil temps were WAY down!!

 

If possible, get the coating on the inside of the pipes as well.

Actually, if you only coat one surface, coat the inner surfaces.

Heat resistant coatings can help keep temps a little lower under the hood, along the firewall, and if the coatings continue along the exhaust piping, the floor pan as well.

 

This is true, and Jet Hot does coat inside of the pipes....(or at least as far as they can go).. This is a must to do the inside of the pipes.

 

Yep I noticed cooler underhood temps with out any doubt as I have had several sets of JETHOT COATED headers and then without and there is a diffference. These guys with coating problems? I have had great luck with Jethot I bought a new set of Jethot coated headers.

I ran them for a over a year and pulled them off and sold the car the pipes were exactly as new looking as when I put them on after a wipe with a rag.
Sold them to a member who commented how they nice they were..

Any doubters about the coating can call and argue with JETHOT!



This website has numerous tests and positively demonstrates the effectiveness of the coating.
Good read!!
https://www.jet-hot.com/

 

You saw that I was dealing with Jet Hot right? LOL...

I have had many sets of headers done by them.... I do feel they are the best at high temp coatings....

But on my C5, I had no measurable reduction in under hood temps. I took many temp readings with an IR temp gun and matched that with engine coolant temps, along with ambient temps.... It was always hot as hell under the hood and never a detectable difference in temps from the header coating.... And if you think ceramic coating will prevent burned wires, go lay a wire on your coated header tube and report back...LOL