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Surely someone here has had experience with headers. I'm concerned about which material hold up the best........chrome, stainless or coated. I've seen chrome rust before after time. Does stainless discolor over time when it's heated? How well do the silver coated headers hold up over time? What I have now are regular untreated steel and they are total rust. I'm looking to dress up the engine bay and want something that will hold up.

Thanks!

anything will discolor over time, although there are a number of 'favorite tricks' to prevent it on different materials - the ceramic coated is my preference - clean up your plain ones and lay on a coat of exhaust paint

Bill

The coated hold up the best. Any of them will discolor if oil or other things get on them.

Definitely go with the coated ones. I've had chrome in the past. First they discolor, then they rust. My current ceramic coated still look good after 6 years use.

Thanks all. I guess I could put a coat of paint on the ones I have for a temporary fix, but I'll start looking for a nice set of ceramic coated headers to install. I had a feeling the new coated type was going to hold up the best.

Thank you!

The nice shinny ones you see in magazines and car shows are never run. That's why they are shinny. I love a chrome/stainless pair with blue heat marks. Anyway, the only way a painted header will hold paint is use a good brand and it MUST be cured in a oven per instructions. Don't expect it to last years even at that. The pros and cons of Ceramic and Stainless make them a wash, except for stainless being a whole lot more money. Stainless may "rust".

must be cured in a oven,yes it makes a difference

I'm kind of like Porcelain Enamel 'Old School', I've seen it on restored Packards, Dusenburgs. I haven't got a clue as to how durable it is. There are other coatings. I haven't had it done yet. There is an advertiser in the Inliners Newsletter, Caps Brite Hot Coatings, there Fresno, CA. They have some prices on there web site. here's the link;

http://capsbhc.com/

I gooogled 'cermakrome coating', and got a few results.

Larry

Here's another coating company.

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

I have used Calico Coatings in Denver, NC to do my turbocharger stuff, they do NASCAR work as well around here, just throwing them out as another ceramic coating source. http://www.calicocoatings.com/

Used them several times, no issues with thier coatings, and generally the turbo pipes run hotter than normal exhaust, I've track-tested them under pretty severe conditions (7400 RPM, lap after lap, road courses down South).

doing some exhaust work on my project and ran across this VHT product yesterday that claims to be a ceramic coating that is baked after application, might try it on yours Spot

Bill

Thanks guys for all the coating companies & product reccomendations. The links were nice too. I appreciate all the comments!