im building my motor right now and was trying to save a buck anyway i can, so after reading a recent thread i thought about painting headers with hi temp paint rather than having them coated. But if the coating is a better option thats the route i want to go. Just looking for your opinions and thoughts. thanks

 

Probably been covered in many posts before. High temp paint won't work.

Cera-metallic coating offers several benefits that paint can't offer:
-stays on longer
-looks better
-reduces heat loss from the headers, reducing under hood temperatures
-reduces header corrosion and stress cracking
-keeps the heat in the tube, increasing scavenging and picking up some HP

 

so clearly having them coated is the better way to go huh?

 

I had a set of SLp headers that were stripped when I got them, I got a good can of header paint and did like the directions said. I painted them with a few good coats, Later that afternoon took them to work and baked them in an oven for whatever the can said and at the correct Temp. I ran them for about 2 years more or less as a DD. When I took them off they still looked pretty good. There were some spotting that had popped off and rusted but overall it worked prety well for the 7 bux the can costed me. Coating is By far the better way but you can make the header paint work to a certian extent

 

also with painting headers you have no way to coat the inside of the pipes your headers will rust from the inside out.

 

Ya, after 10-12 years or more. The inside of headers tend to have a nice layer of carbon that protects it, plus a surface coat of oxidation is also a protective layer (think about how galvanizing and aluminizing works). I had a set of factory painted headers that lasted for 12 years and they were on the car for a couple of years when I bought it. Yes, they looked rusty (again surface coat), but they don't rust out as quickly as people think they will.

As discussed in the last thread like this. POR15 has some paint that people said worked, but as with any paint prep is everything.