Should I coat my Stainless headers?

[Jay Hilliard]

John, If you engine is not broken in, do not break it in with new coated headers. I would go uncoated personally and coat later if you dont like the look.

[parsonsj]

Turbo heat is a whole 'nother animal. 321 stainless, and double top-secret coating for sure!

For N/A cars, the bronze natural look of 304 stainless is pleasing to my eye. What's cool is that the color slowly changes from the the exhaust port all the way to the tail pipe. The other thing about coated headers is that one little scratch ruins the whole look. They have to be sent out for re-coating. Natural stainless scratches can be rubbed out with some 3M red scotch-brite.

My Z06 headers are coated, and look good too, but are slowly losing luster. Of course, that motor stays near redline for 20 minutes at a time, so they see all the exhaust heat a normally aspirated motor can throw at it.

[John510]

Originally Posted by Jay Hilliard

John, If you engine is not broken in, do not break it in with new coated headers. I would go uncoated personally and coat later if you dont like the look.

Engine is new. Thanks for the tip. I'll break in with uncoated and if the color bothers me later I can have them coated.

Thanks everyone for the replies. Much appreciated

[dubbleu]

If you can bolt on an old crappy set for engine break in that is best.

[John510]

Originally Posted by dubbleu

If you can bolt on an old crappy set for engine break in that is best.

I don't have an old set? What does an engine do during break in that I don't want my headers on there?

[camcojb]

Originally Posted by John510

I don't have an old set? What does an engine do during break in that I don't want my headers on there?

really not as much of an issue with modern LS stuff. Older engines with flat tappet cams required a 30-45 minute 2500 rpm run in when first fired to break-in the cam. The higher exhaust temps with the car sitting still (no real airflow) will dull the header coating in most cases.

New LS stuff or roller cam engines don't need that break-in, so if the tune is okay there's no heat issues.

[69x22]

My stainless works headers uncoated still look good but the stainless Magnaflow exhaust system is rusting (cheap grade of stainless).

[Vegas69]

The key is to wipe them down with alchohol before you run the engine the first time. If they are coated, you bring it up to temp and shut it down and let them cool off. Coated or stainless, they are going to deteriorate cosmetically with miles.