My ceramic coated headers are rusting. The rust is on the coating not the metal. Does anyone else with ceramic coating do this?

These headers are only 2 yrs. old.

Here's some pics.
http://www.performanceworks1.com/images/header11.jpg
http://www.performanceworks1.com/images/header12.jpg
http://www.performanceworks1.com/images/header13.jpg

 

Mine don't look like that but I live in Cali and the car don't see rain or snow...Also even though my headers were coated with something I sent them out and had them coated but I forgot the guys name they still look like the day I put them on...well maybe the day after but they still look real good.

Z~

 

you sure those are coated headers man.... that looks a bit like raw 409 stainless, which rusts, i've seen some real cruddy *** slp headers that werent coated. but if you know they are i dunno call em up and gripe about it.

 

Contact the coater and let them know about condition. I did so with Paul Barry and washed with dawn and scothpad, then polished with aluminum polish and they came out fine. Weren't as bad as yours to begin with.

I'd ask SLP about their condition and see what the maker says.

Good luck

 

Using a scotchpad won't hurt the coating?

Also, how about painting them with header paint? Will it stick to the coating?

SLP wants the headers sent back to them, knowing there track record on delays, I'm not sure I want to do that.

 

Those don't look coated to me. Mine looked very different.

 

They are coated for sure.

 

You can tell they are coated... Mine are rusted.. (Non Coated) Doesnt look all that bad....

 

Mine are also coated, and do not look like that. But they're only a year or so old, and about 5,000 miles. I would talk to SLP and see what the warranty is on the coating. Then I would go from there.

 

you can paint them, ive seen a couple of friends that i know paint them black, just make sure you use 1200 degree engine paint and they will look badass

 

The stainless that the SLP's are made from gets surface rust on it. Many of the north American OE systems are made from the same type of stainless (409), because it's the lowest cost stainless on the market. It surface rusts and the corrosion stops there. It's a fundamental characteristic of that grade of stainless.

You could sandblast the headers and get them re-coated. I was able to take a set of headers where surface rust had made some of the coating flake off, very much like yours, and sandblast them. The sandblasting didn't take off the good coating, just the rust. A little wire wheel action to clean them further, and they were ready to be re-coated.

One other possibility: Jet-Hot will clean and coat your headers for a couple hundred dollars. Great coating, but kind of expensive.

 

I don't know what to say to that.

The statements about 409 SS are correct and this is more of a cosmetic problem.

jet hot is really pricy, but there are other options. I got mine coated at a place in Reading called Van Industries. They are cheaper, and you also save on shipping. They coated them inside and out. There was a slight cosmetic imperfection in the color/brightness of the coating where the primary crosses over the other one. I think that was just because it wasn't polished though. They did offer to buff them to a chrome and clearcoat them or something, i just didn't have the money.http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/b/...07/engine.html
you can see them there kinda. I'll look for a better picture for you.

 

Welcome to the club. My SLP headers nearly look like that , but mine are over 5 years old. I had a set done by Paul Berry for a BBC project and they looked worse than that in less than six months. WIth the crap job that Paul Berry did, I think VHT paint would have lasted longer.