Say I get Kooks 1 3/4 Long Tubes, I know I want them in stainless because I don't want them to ever rust, but can you get them coated on top of the stainless steel? If so, is it worth the extra $250 they charge, and will I see any gains from the coating? Thanks, Ryan

 

Ryan, I know some places like SLP have stainless headers that are coated as well. Kooks might do it, but I think you really don't need to coat stainless headers since they conduct less heat that regular mild steel. With mild steel headers its almost mandatory to ceramic coat them inside and out so they don't corrode and lose a lot of heat.

I think you really wouldn't see any noticeable gains with coated stainless, when I get some headers I'm just going with stainless. Good luck.

 

Alright, thanks.

 

I think with headers it's less the conduction, and more
the radiative heat dump that matters. Stainless, black
iron, both have a pretty high emissivity and I think this
is what the coating cuts way down.

If you want your exhaust gas to stay hot all the way to
the O2s, at low load, you probably want to wrap them
anyway.