anyone know with headers (any brand) what the surface temp may get too?

 

it depends

it your going wot for two gears after everythings up to normal operating temperature you could easily flash the external temperature of the header up a few hundred degrees almost instintaneously, momentarilly

the real question is why do you need to know.. whats the consideration involved?

 

research for spark plug boots. they protect up to 1200 degrees, and wires melt at 400 degrees. so i wanted to see what materials will hold up the best and where they fail, but need to know the minimum high temp threshold as im guessing the headers/exhaust manifold is the hottest area in the engine bay

 

well i can't really tell you.... i know on our ford powerstroke when you push the boost over 25psi for a minute the pyrometer reaches 1,300+


only thing i can recommend to you is to go to like a midas or something and ask to use one of those lazer pointer temperature thingys they have for a minute

or you can buy one

its a little handheld lazer pointer, point it at something and it sends back the temperature of whatever you pointed it at on a digital display

brake places commonly have them to shine on hot brake components so they know when its safe to touch

 

Really the external temp of a header is irrelevant. Just get the boot protecter and put it on. They are not meant to protect from direct contact to the header. Nothing will protect the boot from it.