Stainless will radiate more heat into the engine compartment than ceramic coated headers will. This keeps the header from rusting and insulates a lot of the heat.
Header Wrap What You Should Know About Wrapping Your Pipes
Ceramic vs stainless steel headers. The ceramic actually blocks alot of the heat if they are coated inside and out. The stainless header is a good choice for longevity but it doesnt have any insulation properties. Also since the heat is staying inside the headers the exhaust gases will be hotter and will flow more remember as air cools it becomes more dense. Stainless headers get around this problem by using a material that doesnt corrode in the first place. I also like stainless because i think they look better and they will last a lot longer granted if you buy the 700 dollar ones. A ceramic coated stainless header would be the ideal setup if money aint a thang.
Jump to latest follow 1 15 of 15 posts. The ceramic label come from the fact that its mild steel with a cermaic coating not that the header is made of ceramic. Ceramic coatings take that a step further. Because of this coating they do not need header wrap. Ceramic coated headers are not stainless. Ceramic is cheaper and once it wears out you could always sand the old off and reapply a ceramic coating to the headers.
Ceramic coated headers vs. But because of the mild steel core it will eventually rust if the coating takes any abuse. They are cheaper bc the steel in the header is not cheaper. A full stainless header will not rust at all. This is the reason a chikara steel header is so damn cheap and then the ceramic coated is more and so on to stainless. These coatings made of aluminum powder mixed with ceramic dust are sprayed onto the header as a powder and then baked on in an oven.
Joined dec 18 2001 1478 posts. This forms a hard impermeable barrier that doesnt corrode. That is why they rust. Discussion starter 1 sep 22.