Okay, I bought another set of TTIs. Because they said that they had updated the driver's side to accommodate the Borgeson box that I am installing. Now, to be clear, these are a discounted set said to be due to scratches, bumps, and bruises. Here is what I unboxed:





And yes, these are a new set of headers that have never been bolted on.


I talked with CCP. I will likely have them strip and coat these headers. But it is costly.

with all the aerospace coatings available to manufacturers these days, wouldn't you think a header coating that would withstand "atmospheric re-entry" would be [somewhat] available ?

No one wants to pay NASA prices for it, lol.

Jet hot or VHT

VHT? As in spray bomb?

On their website TTI headers they offer for the newish cars are SS. Wonder how much time in their week is spent dealing with customer issues regarding these non-permanent coatings? If you own this company do you continue down this path, or do you add SS as an optional material choice and mark the cost up to cover it?

VHT is paint only. You could derust the funny spots on those, gently scotchbrite the remaining good areas, and then put VHT header paint right over the ceramic if you wanted to. It will adhere just fine. It's just not a life long solution, and the finish will be flat vs shiny is all.

All these fancy coatings don't last.

The best luck I've had with headers was sandblasting and then painting with simple old (Rustoleum?) BBQ black spray paint.

We're going on 9 years and the engine in and out of the car numerous times. They still look great!

Here's a shot from last Winter when I had the engine out for a wellness check:

Yes sir, been using their paint for over 50 years. My go to color is SP117 flat aluminum. but they make many others. Preferably media blast the surface, follow directions and forget about the rest. Spill the oil while changing? wipe it of with clean paper towel, fire it up and the residual burns away with no sign of it ever being there
Bonus, if needed, touch ups are easy

TIP: Stand the can upside down or lay it down for a day or two to get the settled pigment loose

Ilike the black also for a car that has the engine "looking" stock You don't notice them as much.

At this point Dave you might as well just take your old set to a shop to use as a template and have them make a pair in SS.

The biggest issue for me with SS is the underhood heat. The big Hemi makes enough as it is with coated headers.

CCP says they are the answer. For about $500 I can find out. Interestingly enough, they said that the life expectancy of their coating wasn't any different between new steel tubes and rusty ones as long as the rusty ones were still solid. I am having the collectors and flanges changed on the new set right now. When I get them back, I guess I will send them to CCP. And given the deal that I got on these scratched new ones, after the CCP strip and re-coat, I won't have too much more than a straight out new set of coated headers from TTI.

Altogether, these new discounted TTIs, having the collectors modified, the CCP treatment, and with all the shipping, I will be in the new set for about $1,500. Of course, I will probably sell the old set and recoup a few dollars there. But still, the coating had better hold up better than the last ones did. This has been a lot of trouble and it's not over yet.

So coat the SS headers.
I suspect the coatings may last longer as they have no break thru rust issues.

Has anyone here had SS headers coated?

For me, experimenting with coating SS headers would mean spending a lot more time on this, probably more money, and IF CCP's coating works out like they say, it would be a waste. Anyway, I have the new TTIs in hand. So I am committed to this route for better or worse.

The one thing that has surprised me the most is how many members have posted their rusty (formerly) coated TTI headers. That seems unacceptable. But live and learn. Clearly, the best thing to do with TTIs is to order their headers bare and then send them (or have them drop shipped) to your preferred coated. That would not only save the TTI coating money, it would also save the cost to have it removed at the coater. CCP quoted about $150 to remove the original coating.

My SS headers are coated. But not enough time on them at this point to really comment. I kinda wish they weren't.

I have, on a street driven Tacoma, for nearly 200K miles, there obviously are no rust issues, and it reduces heat, enough?, that would be subjective.

Dave I just got the can out of VHT I used to treat the scratches and minor rust on my Ceramic headers and it is the same SP117 that TJP uses. It is a ceramic coating and I can't tell the different from factory coating. I just wiped them off and sprayed bad area. So far no rust through. Mike

I don't think I would coat SS headers on the outside, but I would definitely consider coating them on the inside.

Why?

I am unconvinced inside coating is more than a few limited inches amounts to much anyway but I am open to be proven wrong.

Unfortunately, I am already committed to this route so I can't test your experience for myself

But I just don't see how spray bomb would hold up better than good ceramic coat. We have all used spray bomb and I have some VHT in my cabinet right now. Nothing wrong with it or any other spray bomb in the right place.

But are you suggesting that the VHT spray bomb would hold up better than (or even as well as) the CCP coating in my application? That is the key question in my opinion.

Interior coating does work to a degree to slow the heat transferring from the interior to the exterior. My brother is into the B.O.P. cars from the 60's, and the exhaust ports on those cylinder heads hangs out past the main body of the cylinder head. They are notorious for having the paint burn off due to all that heat building up in the head where the exhaust manifolds bolt to. On some of the engines he has rebuilt he sprayed the inside of the exhaust ports with silver vht header paint, and it has made the paint actually stay on the head. It does discolor the paint slightly, but the paint does not turn black and flake off like they normally do as seen in the link below. Coated on both sides would help with heat for sure, but if you told me to pick only one side I say interior, and leave the outside raw so stains and scratches are easier to deal with. That is the real benefit of using SS to me is it's lower maintenance vs the coatings.

Typical no paint left on the exhaust ports example. https://www.ebay.com/itm/175034846761

Having owned many dirtbikes whatever they use for exhaust tubing is the best thing going Might be Ti? Anyways, it never rusts and even the nastiest crud washes off with a little help from an SOS soap pad.