Uncoated headers, please help!

I can get a great price on longtube pacesetter race style headers for the price of $170. I saw pictures of it and it looks a little rusty but I'm sure I can clean it up a bit. Anyone know how I can get the rust off and what kind of hightemp spraypaint I can use? Please help, need to send payment asap.

Oh yeah, headers does not come with y-pipe and provision EGR hookups!

15 views and no post? Come on guys, help a brotha out!

I have uncoated Hooker shorty headers on my '98 Z28 and I keep burning plug wires. I even burned them through Taylor heat shields installed over my Taylor wires. I now have my wires wrapped in heat shielding underneath the Taylor heat shields and I seem to be doing OK now.

My advice though, if I had it to do all over again, is pay the extra money and get the coated headers. I don't know if it would have completely fixed my problems, but I'm sure it would've helped.

My advice, if you get them, clean the rust off and then send them off to be coated.

I'd just get some stainless steel headers and not worry about the extra cost of coating them.

I ran uncoated heeaders on my 70 for 12 years. Yes, they lasted that long and were used when I bought the car.

You can clean the rust off with a wire brush or media blasting. NO high temp spraypaint will last. Not even the VHT header paint. POR has a header coating, but I never tried it. Rust, though it may not be astheticly pleasing, is its own protective coating.

If you're burning plug wires and the wires aren't touching then you may be running lean and getting the headers hotter than they should.

Thanks guys, I've decided to pass up on the cheap uncoated pacesetters and get coated.

I like to drop headers off at a machine shop for them to sand blast. I have a blaster, but no way headers fit in them, you need an industrial version. If properly prepped, header paint will last a while, but will eventually come off. But that doesn't mean the headers won't last, especially if you aren't in the rust belt. I have uncoateds in my 71 and they've been on there ~ 15 years, still doing fine. No burning wires either, even though SBCs run tubes much closer to the boots.

What kind of paint do they use to paint actual blocks? And isn't the temperature roughly the same or hotter? If so, how come the paint doesn't come off after a while?

I got the headers in my sig for $165 with a Y-pipe. I just got the high temp header paint from autozone and put like 2 coats on and they work great...


sorry didn't read your last post kinda drunk....

What kind of paint do they use to paint actual blocks? And isn't the temperature roughly the same or hotter? If so, how come the paint doesn't come off after a while?


Headers get much hotter than your block or heads. Headers are thin metal Less mass = less heat dissipation. I've seen headers glow but never a block. ;)

What do you guys think about buying a set of uncoated pacesetter longtubes and coated ory for $200? They are described as "Pacesetter 1 3/4" off-road headers with 3" collectors"