Coated header cleaning & polishing??
 

I have the headers off the car while I have the motor out and am trying to clean up my AS&M ceramic coated headers. They are not rusty but they are a little dirty. I thought that aluminum polish cleaned them up but when I tried some it turned the header pipe a dark grey instead (maybe it was the polish).

These headers are about 5 years old and this is the first time I have really tried to polish them up. Has anybody had any luck cleaning up a set of ceramic coated headers? If so what did you use.

Thanks

A local shop coated my headers and they recommended simple green for any oil spills or other petroleum products for cleanup. They did say you can use aluminum polish to bring back some lost luster but over time the aluminum in the coating which gives the chromeish appearance will deteriorate.

Thanks,

Sounds like simple green it is.

I have same issue. I bought a set of used SLP coated headers and they are a greyish, no more silver. I was told by slp this is not uncommon from the heat. I will try simply green and on a corner try silver polish and get back to you as to whether it works. On the LT1 so little of the headers show, I am not to concerned

I just cleaned a set of headers with the ceramic coating. These headers had some rust in places that had come through the coating. The entire set was very dull. I used a wire wheel and a sand blaster on the whole thing. It took off the rust and not the coating. I expected the coating to be easily removed but it wasn't taken off at all except around the edges of the rusted areas. The upshot is that the coating brightened right up and looked new. The wire wheel cleaned the coating. That coating sticks!