Quote:

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...



You lost me at having the headers "baked at a powder coating outfit". I'm not sure how that would help you since you're trying NOT to overheat the headers in the first place.

To answer your question, YES you will generally trash the bright ceramic coating if you're firing up a new motor that hasn't been tuned properly or if you dyno an engine. Too lean and too rich are BOTH BAD. It's unlikely you'll hurt the flanges but too lean will overheat the coating from the flange to mid primary. Too rich and it will overheat mid primary to collector. The headers below took about a minute or two to discolor when the engine was too lean.

It sounds like you need to take the headers off anyway since the coating arrived damaged. Why would you accept them?