Exhaust Finish

[Martin]

Hi All,

I am getting ready to place my order for an RCR40 and what to the know the pros and cons about the bundle of snakes finishes. Any info and choices made will be helpful.

Marty

 

[Neil]

Cerakote is what I used on my long-tube headers. It has held up well. BTW, black has the highest temperature rating of all the Cerakote colors.

 

[Randy V]

The last set I had done were by Jet-Hot coatings. Ceramic Coating Inside and out. The finish on the outside of the headers did not dull.

 

[Brian]

I'm a big fan of the natural straw color that Stainless takes on when it's been hot.

Just a light brushed natural finish. Maybe coat the inside to keep the temp down if you want.

 

[Pete]

I used Jet-Hot as well. The picture dosent do them justice. I had the extreme temp coating on the inside and regular outside to aide in reducing under bonnet temps.

 

[Tom]

The guys from a respected vintage race shop weren't fans of full coating in case any welding needed to be done on them. Turns out I needed another bung welded into mine for a wide range lambda sensor for tuning EFI, so I was glad I only coated the inside.

 

[Randy V]

The guys from a respected vintage race shop weren't fans of full coating in case any welding needed to be done on them. Turns out I needed another bung welded into mine for a wide range lambda sensor for tuning EFI, so I was glad I only coated the inside.

The coatings are easily removed from areas that may need repair/welding - this leaves the rest of the system protected at the very least. I have seen some ceramic coatings that appear to be almost see-thru for that natural metal look. If you have a polished SS header and want to maintain that look, you can have just the insides (virgin-clean metal only) ceramic coated. Works wonders in keeping underhood temps in check Without having to wrap or jacket the exhaust.

 

[Scott]

30+ years ago ERA recommended that I use Central Connecticut Coating to ceramic coat the headers and side pipes for my cobra. I've been very happy with the results and Allan uses them for everything he does. The guys doing the fabrication on my SL-C do a lot of exhausts and high-temp turbo applications and all of the colors that they have used have worked well. Irrespective of the product make sure that the whomever does the work knows what they're doing.

My headers are 321 stainless steel so they would look great natural and, although they retain heat >200% better than mild steel, my primary concern is heat management. Wrapping them is out. I'm leaning towards one of the titanium colors from Cerakote, but I'm still looking at options.

Does anyone know if it's possible to coat the insides of complex long-tube headers?

 

[Randy V]

Scott - I was told that it is possible to coat them and actually had that done on mine, but not nearly as complex as yours. I’m sure an email and phone-call should answer the questions…. The most important areas would be close to the ports and collectors, I would think…
These are headers built by my cousin on a couple of street rods we built. The last pic was on his 34 Victoria and ultimately he had the outside coated too in order to reduce temps further.

 

[Tom]

The coatings are easily removed from areas that may need repair/welding - this leaves the rest of the system protected at the very least. I have seen some ceramic coatings that appear to be almost see-thru for that natural metal look. If you have a polished SS header and want to maintain that look, you can have just the insides (virgin-clean metal only) ceramic coated. Works wonders in keeping underhood temps in check Without having to wrap or jacket the exhaust.

I am not knowledgeable on welding but...you can grind the coating off the outside, but you can't clean it off the inside. So there's the potential of contamination of the weld to deal with. Perhaps not an issue on a header, but I've had a weld crack on a bicycle, it was the repairer's opinion that it was due to weld contamination. Maybe I'm making a mountain out of a molehill.