I re-did my turbo headers with Sched. 40 and want to paint them before I put them on. What's the best? Thanks.

Brad...

 

is schedule 40 stainless or just thick mild steel? I have tried every type of header paint I could get my hands on. Some actually looks really nice for a day or two. tried high temp primers, beadblasting, acid bath, acetone dip, and ALL of it burns off except... well.... jet hot. I actually even burned the jet hot partially off the first radius on a set of headers while tuning an accel DFI on the dyno too.

 

I agree, I have tried all types of header paints and they just will not last. Save yourself alot of hassle and have them Jet-Hot Coated. Its an expensive inital cost,but it pays of in the long run by looking great and reducing the under the hood temp quit a bit.

 

I haven't seen one that will hold up to any real heat.

So were are the pics?

 

Schedual 40 is about 3/16" thick pipe. Nice and heavy and good to weld on. I switch my wire to .030 and it welded like ****. No penetration. Why I switched I don't know. I welded the 14 gauge with .035 and had no probs. I thought maybe I'd get a better weld with the .030, but no. So I went back to the .035. Here's a couple of pics.

 

is jet-hot the same as ceramic coating? if not, is ceramic coating more expensive? which is better?

 

same

 

Jet hot is a type of ceramic coating. generally one of the better ones but I don't think even jet hot is worth it unless you go with the 2000 stuff. I've heard of good things about the Paul Berry (sp?) stuff. I know the Swain tech stuff will hold up to the worst conditions but only comes in flat white and gets dirty looking fast.

Anything shiny will have aluminum in it, which means that no matter what temp it's rated at, it will start falling appart at about 1200*

 

I've seen some of those $575 Hooker super-comps on a thirdgen, the real shiny silver ones. right where the header met the head however, it was miscolored.. sort of golden looking...

I know that certain parts will get like that but I really think it looks kinda cool.

Are those headers (above) ceramic coated and is that the aluminum type your refering to? is that miscoloration some sort of DECAY?

 

you finally listened to me huh

 

Aluminum melts at between 1200-1300*, the coating just flakes off when you hit that.

The discoloration is probably just dirt baked onto the coating.

 

Looks like I'll just use the crappy header paint and just keep painting them. I mainly don't want them to rust out. But the car won't be driven in the rain anyway and it's kept in the garage.

Brad...

 

Yup. Well I originally wanted the Sched. 40 but couldn't find any around. I don't know why I even thought that 14 gauge would work. Well it might have worked but I was a little worried. And I was in a hurry to get started on the headers. The sched. 40 wasn't that hard to find. I knew where to get it but I is lazy. Now they're done right. I was thinking of mounting the wastegates on the front ends of the logs. Looks like the perfect spot. All I have to do is cut my radiater hose a little and move it in and it should fit on that side no prob. The pass. side will work without moving anything and both sides will look the same. Nice and neat.

Brad...

 

Get them coated and you'll be fine

 

Doesn't that Por 15 stuff work well. That's what I hear atleast. You have to do little touchups once and a while, and it may not be good for a daily driver, but yours isn't.

 

so what kind of place did you get the schedual 40 at (in other words, what do I need to look for to find some locally, I haven't been able to find a supplier locally, but I'm sure that they exist).

What size did you use?

If you coat them only do it on the outside, the coating will come off on the inside and your turbos will eat it. I would get the thing running and when you decide that everything is like you want it the pull them and get them coated if you're still worried about it (hell, after the work involved to build them, pulling them will be a piece of cake).

 

I had to go to an actual steel yard that has everything. Flat bar round stock, channel etc. I paid $8 for 5 feet of Sced. 40. I used 2" ID pipe. Good and heavy. I made the pass side a bit different and didn't leave myself too much room for a downpipe. I have more room on the drivers side now. I'll live with it. I ain't making anymore of these. Takes all day to make one.

Brad...

 

Actually, I was wondering what size you used for the stubs...

 

As for the question on header paint......

POR15 does make a high temp exhaust coating. It's called POR-20. I've used it twice with VERY good results. Important thing is that the headers / pipes it's going on are blasted CLEAN. Then wipe with a tack rag and thinner, then apply the paint. It's brush on, but just like POR-15, it smooths out VERY easily, doesn't look brushed on at all. I ended up using a sponge type brush. Worked great. The first time I used it I put on 4 thin coats, allowing overnight drying time on each. I messed up when I put the headers in, because I ended up having to "clearance" a couple of the headers tubes. About 4 months later, when I sold the car, the coating still looked GREAT, except where I'd banged on the tubes for clearance.

The 2nd time was on a friend's car. The headers were already installed, we just took them off to detail them, so no clearance needed. We used about 3-4 coats, and we baked each coat by putting the headers in a gas grill

Worked great. That was last spring, the headers still look really good. No flaking or cracking yet.


HTH

 

did the
por 20 hold up to alot of driving in those months or was it just weekend driving?

 

Here is a pic of the pipe I used for the stubs and the schedual 40. The stubs look to be about an 1/8 thick. I was gonna measure them with my dial calipers but I just got off work and am too tired to scrounge them up. The stubs are heavier than my shorty header pipes.

Brad...

 

POR 20 is very finicky. I used it on my headers twice. The first time i didn't blast them and i didn't bake them. i just coated them and put them on. the coating actually lit on fire. Well the second time i did it i blasted them, put two coats on, and then baked them at 375* for a half hour each. This time they just smoked a bit on the first startup. They seem to be holding up pretty good this time. The passenger side started flaking, but its my fault. i scratched it up pretty good with a wrench trying to get at the sparkplugs. The drivers side still looks pretty damn good though...

Eric

 

You people have to understand the amount of heat generated in the headers/manifolds of a turbo motor, it is outrageous

Unless you get it coated, plan on anything you put on coming off

 

I used some VHT 1450F enamel on headers before. I sandblasted them coated them and baked them in an oven. The stuff changed color when the engine was hot and it did come off after some time. If you do it without the baking and moisture is under the paint it'll bubble up really bad.

If I would try anything else it would be cermachrome by techlinecoatings (.com)

Marck

 

I was told ceramic coating turn "brownish" / "galvanized" color when they hit 1200-1300*F. it usually happens right at the head, especially on motorcylce headers. they say that even when temps are kept below that, the hottest part of the ceramic will still miscolor slightly as time goes on. but it should never flake off....

i was also told the shiny pretty silver ones had no aluminum in them.