my brother was telling me that he heard on his forum that starting a new motor for the first time creates gases or somethign that ruin your new headers, so your suppose to use old headers to first start and break in your motor... is this true?

supposidly breaking in an engine with new headers with a ceramic coating or something ruins them... idk if this is true.

 

I started a new motor with Hooker 2055's, which were not coated, and have experienced no ill effects.

JamesC

 

When I bought my hedamn elite headers it was in the instructions that under any circumstances you shouldnt breakin a new motor with the new headers unless its the absolutly the only headers you can use. It does screw them up.

 

I called up Hooker when I got my new headers and they said the ceramic is already cured when they ship it out so breaking in an engine with them would not hurt anything. If a company doesnt cure the cermaic before they sell it then dont break in your engine with those headers.

 

If the timing is late on the engine it will blow the flame down the headers and overheat the coating, especially if it is a flat tappet and is being broken in at 1,500-2,000 rpms, the pipes glow quick, I have done it.

Best way to keep good coating on headers is this.....buy the headers (BARE), fit them, run them, run them, remove them, coat them, enjoy them.

 

Well put greezemonkey! Do this,or use junky headers first.You can damage coated headers on break in.

 

Breaking in flat-tappet cams can cause the header tubes to glow red-hot, it's happened even on old engines when breaking in a new cam. This will cause your ceramic coating to turn white and flaky and destroys the polished finish. I've only seen 1 roller cam do it, so it might be a timing aggravated issue like Greezemonkey says.

TA

 

oh ok thanks for the info... i was just wondering if it was a myth

why would u run the headers multiple times after fitting them/dimpling them for correct fitment then have them coated.... isnt it bad to do that? they say to have them coated right away bc the headers have to be clean...which they wont if u run them correct?

i have headman LT's on now which i will prob just start the motor in since i will be replaceing them with the new motor

 

you'd want to run and test fit the bair headers so that you don't scratch coating on install or ruin the finish from a fresh engine start up with the proper tuning. Why buy a nice coated set of headers and then find out you have to dimple them to make them fit your application? That why you always buy them bare, fit them, run your engine for a while to ensure it is fine, and then remove the headers and ship them out to be coated. This is what I am in the middle of doing with a set of Hooker LTs, I am so glad I didnt get coated ones becasue I ended cutting off 2 primaires and making new ones that ran in a different direction slightly to get more plug space. Now that they are all set, I will send them out when I gather up enough determination to take them back off my engine for 25th time.

Oh and it wont matter if the headers are used, rusty or slightly scratched. They get sandblasted and cleaned before the new coating goes on

 

Yea, I painted my headers with VHT, then broke in my engine with new flat tappet cam and it smoked the coating right off. Timing is one thing, but you can adjust that as it's running when breaking in the engine. It's also because the clearances are tight, everything is new and it's all wearing together. Holding the car at that RPM for 1/2hr generates MEGA heat. I was really surprised.
I still need to get around to re-coating my headers.

 

ceramic coatings are different than paint, ive used 3 diff products including VHT all ceramic 1200 degree header paints and they all seem to smoke off as soon as it gets hot, that stuff doesnt work at all!

oh yea i forgot about the motor twisting etc when its running i can see where that would be neccessary... u just better hope they clean them before they dip them in the coatings lol

 

they have to sandblast before they coat the headers. Any decent powder/thermal coating shop would have their own booth.

It would be like painting a car without rubbing it down with lacquer thinner or paint prep first, it just doesent happen.

 

The coating company should prep the headers. And you could also add what you ate for breakfast to your sig, so it could be a little longer...

 

so if you just buy non coated headers, it shouldnt' hurt anything right?