I'm about to buy a header for my car, and it's used, so it has some surface rust. I know I'm going to sand it off, but should I paint it? I don't think there's any paint that can really stand up to rotary exhaust temps. So should I just leave it bare and put some header wrap around it, or what do you guys think?

 

i'm not sure if much will help. wrap will still allow it to rust. ceramic coating may help as may powdercoating..not sure what either will be able to stand temperature wise..

 

Yeah but wrap will protect it more wont it?

 

Wrap locks moisture in if/when it gets wet unless you wrap it AND spray it with the sealer, but even the sealer isnt always reliable. Not to mention my personal opinion of a fire hazard if gas, coolant, oil, etc gets soaked into the wrap and gets hot.

I would look at ceramic coating, or as a cheaper alternative, they make paint for BBQ grills, boilers, etc thats available at some industrial supply type places with ceramic in it and good for a couple thousand degrees.

Or, just clean it up with some steel wool and run the thing.

~T.J.

 

There is no paint that can withstand the temperature of our headers. Waste of time to paint it!

 

Ive successfully painted one before, and it help up fine. As I said, you have to buy the stuff from the industrial supply stores, not the hardware store. There are no "major brands" that make a paint that will work that Im aware of. The stuff I bought was not in an aerosol can, you have to spray it on yourself. It was about $50 for enough if I remember correctly. Its sold like 8 ounces at a time or something? Its meant for stoves, boilers, BBQs, etc. It withstands 2000 degrees plus. Its more of a ceramic coating thats applied at home than a paint.

~T.J.

 

Do you have any pictures of the one you did and how long did you run it on your engine to see how it held up?

 

I live near a Jet Hot coating place and it will survive up to about 2k degrees everyday. You can get it in chrome or any color you want and they're running a deal until the end of July. I got my friends Corvette headers coated for around $250 (long tube, 1800F sterling silver). They reduce the exhaust heat so much that you hover your hand over the exhaust after a hard run. I don't work for them but they're always helpful whenever I call them up so I figured I'll pass the word along.
http://www.jet-hot.com/

Heat wrap always gets soaked in oil and becomes brittle or get's wet and steams. It's really bad for your exhaust anyway and accelerates rust.

Maybe the rattle can he's talking about would be another alternative to the relatively expensive option of Jet Hot. I'd imagine a rotary header would be fairly cheap to coat though. Probably only around $100 for a rotary header.

Hope I could help.

 

He is not referring to a "Rattle" can paint but one that you use a spray gun with.

The jet coat may be something to look into. Thanks for the tip and the link.

I just sent them an inquiry on what it would cost to coat a RB header.

 

If you do go with ceramic coating, make sure the header is media blasted and coated on the inside and outside. This will keep the heat away from the engine compartment. Putting the coating on the outside will keep the rust away. Normal powder coating will not hold up. It needs to be hi-temp ceramic. It goes on as a liquid and drys. Then the header is put on the vehicle and the heat of the exhaust curses the coating.

 

was the original intent to paint the headers to prevent additional metal loss through corrosion?

if so, won't por-15 or another self etching primer work?

 

Oh I must have misread that. I'd be interested to find out what it is either way.

 

The VHT Flameproof rattlecan ceramic coating works pretty well for preventing rust. The black color gets faded and ashy looking eventually when used on the header, but it still kept the rust away for the couple of years I used that system on my daily driver in Seattle rain. I'm using it again for my turbo manifold and exhaust, and so far, so good.

 

I received the quote back today for The Jet 2000 Black coating.

$185.00 for the header
$150.00 for the pre-silencer

Don't know if that includes shipping or not.

 

They appear to sell pacesetter headers pre-coated as well.

http://www.jet-hot.com/pages/Precoats/Madza.htm

 

That is most likely just the process. The best ceramic coating process requires the header to be media blasted, in the oven at about 225F for an hour, cooled, sprayed with material, let it air dry for about an hour, in the oven for 30 min at 175 then ramped up to as much as 700F for an hour. Lot of labor and babysitting and the material is really expensive.

I just ordered some to do the headers for my RX2 and my Bugeye for my first try at ceramics in my powdercoating oven.