I got in my headers from ACS and I went to bolt them on my motor, which is new, and per them you can't do this cause the headers need to be broken in correctly with heat and stuff for the coating. This is all well and good but am I the first one to put coated headers on a new block?
I don't have an old full exhaust system to bolt on, what can I do?

 

Go to a junkyard, get any old 350 manifolds that will fit in the car for $5 or $10, and break in the motor with those. Then use the headers after.

 

no one put new coated headers on a new block?

 

Usually whoever does the coating will tell you not too, because the exhaust temps can be much higher than normal when an engine is breaking in, and that can damage the coating.

 

yeah but does it actually damage the coating or are they just being overly cautious to cover their butts?

 

i didnt know about this at all. My new engine will be ready in a day or so and I just ordered some slps with y-pipe (got a killer deal).

How many miles does it take to break in the motor. or does breaking it in require lots of flooring?

 

I'm kind of interested in this as well. I'm building a new 355 to replace the current 350 and plan on installing SLP 1-3/4" coated headers before I'm done istalling the engine. I don't really like the idea of installing the engine with manifolds and then installing the headers after. Hell, how many miles does a break in period last? I only drove the car 1000 miles this summer

 

i have a set of hooker 2460 headers on my 383 some of the coating burnt a little bit during the breakin.. i had it running a little rich tho.. the first bend when where they connect to the head is where they will burn at.. if you had your motors a/f ratio set perfect from the gecko it probably wouldn't burn off.

 

Its only the initial break in (first 1/2 hour or so) that you don't want to use coated headers, because even if everything is set up just right, it will still make alot more heat than usual, and that will damage the coating. Break in creates alot of heat!

 

w00t! thats great news then. I wont be installing the new headers (and y-pipe and cat-back) till a day or two after getting the new motor.

 

Air Dam - so it's only for the initial break in? I can run the ride definately for a 1/2 hour to get the timing dead on and the carb somewhat tuned before the drive. I was thinking it was for the first 500 miles or so....

 

When I put my new motor in I broke it in with my brand new SLP headers that I'd gotten Jet Hot coated. Jet Hot might have said something about not doing this, but I didn't read it anywhere, so I did it anyway. My motor got VERY hot during the initial cam breakin and the collector where the 4 header tubes came together one each side actually started to glow cherry red just before we shut it down. I don't know how much damage was done to the coating, but I can tell you that the headers certainly don't have the gorgeous shine that they had when I first got them from Jet Hot It makes me very sad and I wish I'd known about not using freshly coated headers for breakin before I did it. Like I said I'm not sure if it actually hurts the coating in terms of it's protection, but it certainly did dull the finish on mine.
Here's a pic that shows how they looked before I fired the motor:



Here's how they look now:



I still think they look better than uncoated, but like I said...no more shine...Interesting to know this...after the fact. I just assumed that the shine dulled once you ran the motor with the headers on

-Paul

 

I do Ceramic coatings and ya its not the dest idea. If you run to lean or to rich on break in you run the risk of overheating the headers. Sometimes as said abouve even cherry glow red which is deff over the recomended Temps.

If coated well It should just Dull as those SLP's did. other instances you actually break down the ceramic is it will bubble and flake off.

 

Well damn... Now I need to figure out if I want to start the car this weekend with the headers installed or not...... Perhaps they should change their name to "jet warm" or "jet sort of hot". I'm pretty sure that jets run hotter than that..

Way to screw up a plan.