Ceramic Coating Headers

[rayDC2R]

Hey guys... need some advice... and experience feedback for those who have tried with and without...

Can anyone tell me if its worth ceramic coating new headers and the pros and cons involved... and more specifically, do u need to ceramic coat good quality jap headers... and will it improve any performance....

Pros and Cons please... and your opinion if its worth the few hundred $... thanks!

[TODA AU]

IMO, it's a complete waste of money.
I doubt you'd see even 1kw gain.
If you like, I'll dyno your car before & after for free & you can show everyone if it's worth it or not...
I'm staying firmly on the or not side.

[rayDC2R]

Thanks for the reply...
How about in terms of protecting the headers... maybe making them last longer?
How about the travel of gas and gas velocity through the headers?
Pros & Cons?

[JSL]

IMO, it's a complete waste of money.
I doubt you'd see even 1kw gain.
If you like, I'll dyno your car before & after for free & you can show everyone if it's worth it or not...
I'm staying firmly on the or not side.

Ceramic Coating? same as HPC?

[chee]

depends on the cars really. turbo cars it makes a load of difference. na car's you would see some gains but it you could really invest the money somewhere else. if you wanted to target the aspect of efficiency in the system, it would be a goer.

header longevity, they dont last as loong. heat is trapped in the header instead of being released. exhaust velocity is increased as the heat has more resistance to "leak" out.

in hindsight its really what you want to do with the car, but if your looking for bang for bucks modification, the money can be spent somewhere else.

[Noel]

Chee's has covered some important aspects, just a further elaboration - The core purpose of ceramic coating/heat wrap is to reduce engine bay temperatures at the sacrifice of manifold lifetime. On a highly tuned vehicle in particular forced induced, heat is a crucial factor in balance and response. Tuners who opt for this route know they need to readily replace that manifold on-demand when it's passed the "use by date".

Then again, single digit NA tuning would perhaps do more harm than good in attainment for the same effect. Your other options to reduce heat can no doubt be achieved by using a properly vented bonnet releasing most of the crucial heat waves when possible.

[tinkerbell]

on a Honda, you dont do it for power gains

[rayDC2R]

hey so have you guys actually experienced ceramic coating your headers?

[tinkerbell]

yes, i had my JDM 4-1's HPC coated in brissy:



that was on my old Prelude, i have not bothered coating again...

[rayDC2R]

nice pic...

hey dave, why have u not coated ur headers after this one? is it cos its not worth the money? if so, why is it not worth the money?
i know its got positives, but what are the negatives (if any, apart from no power gain)?

[tinkerbell]

care factor.

when i was doing my B216A prelude, i had heaps of time waiting, plus wnated to try to do everything as well as possible...

plus, i welded two new oxygen sensor bungs on the header to make it OBD0 compatable,

so i got the headers coated after the welding - cost $250 and IMO assisted in keeping the engine bay temperature down

[rayDC2R]

so does it shorten the life of the header or lengthen it?
is it more prone to crack?
is there more negatives than positives?

sorry for all the questions, just having a little debate with my brother about the subject and he's almost forcing me to coat mine when i get a set...

[tinkerbell]

so does it shorten the life of the header or lengthen it? perhaps shorten, but hard to know, in a street NA it would be decades rather than years
is it more prone to crack? maybe
is there more negatives than positives? not really

sorry for all the questions, just having a little debate with my brother about the subject and he's almost forcing me to coat mine when i get a set...

it is all conjecture.

if you can afford it do it.

if you cant afford it, forget it...

[JSL]

lol ray its easy your brother wants it so bad get him to pay for yours to be done!!

[rayDC2R]

lol ray its easy your brother wants it so bad get him to pay for yours to be done!!

yeah that sounds like a good idea... but i wanted to know for myself if i did get it done through him paying for it, is it going to be bad for my headers? i wanted to know the negatives to it... life of headers, cracking, etc.