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As I was installing my TTi headers I hopped on the TTi website to see what torque specs were on the flange bolts. In the instuctions I saw an alarming bit. It basically said that I should run cast iron exhaust manifolds or an old pair of headers to break in a new engine because of the mixture problems and other conditions that create enough heat to burn the coating off around the header flange. My headers came with the ceramic coating that was pretty scratched up from storage and shipping. I cleaned and scuffed them and shot them again with ceramic coating.

Is there a way to preserve the coating? Something tells me I should have had these baked at a powder coating outfit before I put them on this engine. The engine is installed and I REALLY don't want to remove it...

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I fried a set of TTI headers on a 440 breaking in the cam. They were glowing cherry red and I didn't have the timing or mixture correct. It's tough to know right at first. This happened within 30-60 seconds of the motor starting.
Mine developed a crack in between the tubes in the middle from the overheat situation. I took it off and welded it up. Nothing I could do about the coating. Next time I will know better.

Look close you can see the crack.