I have my motor out and my headers are a little "rusty". What is the best way to go about treating them and preserving them to get the most "mileage" out of them?
Thanks,
Jim

Bead blast them, then use Eastwood's stainless steel exhaust paint on them or have them coated with one of the jet-hot-type coatings. Paint or coat them as soon as you can after getting them clean. I've done this a couple of times with good results.

But, I have no way to bead blast them. Any other ideas?
Jim

Backyard treatment: give them a good once over with some rough sandpaper to knock the heavy rust down, then coat them with OSPHO to completely get rid of the rust. From there, you can try to paint or coat them with some header paint. but it probobly won't last. At least with the ospho treatment, you'll stop the rust.

I took mine to a local body shop,he blasted them for $20.00. Then hit them with the Eastwood stuff(couple coats),been there 3 yrs and still look pretty good!

It is time consuming, but you can hand sand them. If you can find a place that will sandblast them, you will get better results. My vote is for VHT High Temp paint, really tough stuff for spray bomb header paint! The pic is my 340, the headers were used, I sandblasted and painted them with the VHT.

Oh, the pic is back in August, it has been running for a few months now, and they headers still look the same.

Investigate Jet-Hot Coatings. You might want to talk to them. They coat both inside and out. Lowers heat in the cabin. The attachment is of headers that are 10 years old. I know of no other treatment that lasts as long as these have for me.

check out a local restoration shop...they will usually blast your headers for a reasonable fee. Paint it with an Eastwood coating and you're done. Special coatings like JetHot probably last longer, but Eastwood coatings work pretty well for the money.