I had some Jet Hot LT headers w/ Y pipe installed on my F-Body back in early 2005. Jet Hot advertises the coating as the best thing to put on your headers.

Well, flash forward to right now and my headers are a bit on the nasty side. I propped up the car to get underneath to see if I could get some of the rust off and I'm surprised because not only is there rust running the entire length of the piping, the collectors are actually bubbling. The part where the primaries come together are especially nasty, with a collection of rust and bubbled out jet hot coating.

Is this supposed to be normal? I'm thinking it isn't because the Stainless steel exhaust bands that I have tying the entire mess together (supplied by Jet Hot) are basically untouched, as is the 308 stainless that the GMMG system is made out of.

Can jet hot do anything about this or am I just basically assed out?

 

I've had the same experience with headers and the silver coating....

 

Really? Details?

Just don't end it with an ominous dot dot dot please.

 

If they are out of warranty you are screwed like me.

Mine started to rust bad after a year - never driven in snow - rarely in rain and the heat should burn off any moisture in rain so don't know why the coating started to bubble and flake. Mine are almost completely rusted brown.

Personnaly I think high temp paint from POR 15 would have been as good.

I'm replacing the JetHot's with American Racing stainless including their y-pipe. That should get rid of the worries about rust.

 

Did you follow the care instructions that the headers come with or just put them on & leave them alone?

Mine are in great shape, but the car doesn't leave the garage when it is raining or snowing.

 

My headers started rusting after the first year. Jet-Hot = poor quality IMHO
Y pipe fit like crap and the area where the two pipes merged did not have the hole made large enough so it would have been a huge restriction had I not made an extension for my die grinder and opened the hole up.

 

Definitely worth the extra $ to get the stainless. I made the mistake of putting aluminized pipe on my truck a few years ago when I redid the exhaust. Never again. The crap never last 3 years before it rotted so bad that it fell apart.

Everything I put on my Camaro is going to be stainless.

 

i havent had this problem yet but i took mine through some heat cycles before i went out and gave em hell

 

I know this is an old thread, but the search feature on here actually worked so I don't want to waste it...

I recently installed three sets of Jet Hot Headers and Y-Pipes on three different LS1 F-body's. The first was my buddy, Dave's 98 Z28. We completed his in early March and now has a little over a thousand miles racked up with the new exhaust. The second was my 99 Firebird Formula, completed in late April with maybe 200 miles on it. The third was my brother, Tristan's 02 35th Anniversay SS that we finished in the middle of May and has barely over a hundred miles on them. ALL OF THESE HEADERS AND Y-PIPES ARE SHOWING SURFACE RUST!! These cars are no "trailer queens", but they are not daily drivers and do not see rain, snow or any other kind of shitty weather. I'm really dissapointed in this Jet Hot Coating. I mean, what's the freakin' point of even coating the exhaust with this **** if it's just going to rust? Not to mention the amount of time these parts have been installed has been minute. If it shows rust in this amount of time, seriously how long can these pipes be expected to last before they fail completely?
I know the coating is supposed to help trap the exhaust heat in the tubes to help keep engine bay temps down which is great, but how can it trap the heat when its being eaten away by rust? Aaahhh...

This is only a portion of the rant I'd like to leave, but instead I have questions that some of you may have the answers to. So instead of ripping Jet Hot a new @$$hole, here are my questions:

1. Have any of you with similar problems contacted (or attempted to contact) Jet Hot?

2. If so, what was their reply?

3. Were any of you offered a refund? The reason I ask this is because if three sets of headers and Y-pipes are all rusting, why would I want to simply have them replaced by a 4th, 5th, and 6th set that all have the chance to do same?

4. If Jet Hot offered to replace the parts with new, did they require you to send back the old prior to them sending the replacements?

5. Also, what about shipping charges? Why should I have to pay one cent to send back a defective product? Did Jet Hot offer to cover shipping on the defective parts?

6. How would you rate their customer service and how long did it take from the time you told them about the problem to when it was completely resolved?

Thank you guys for any info you can give on this subject. We all spend our hard earned cash on our cars in an attempt to make them better in whatever way. I don't believe it's too much to ask that these parts and services live up to what we have paid.

 

honestly i have had all coatings. HPC jet hot and a few others. had local powder coat guy do it. they have had the same end result. the coating is worth it to help prolong the life of the headers. if it buys you an extra year or two than it is worth it. i get the headers coated black so you can't see the rust as noticeably.

 

Same here. Mine started to rust within 3 months with just summer weekend driving and never in rain. The only water the headers have been exposed to is the water on the floor of the car wash.

See pic. The coating is peeling and flaking off. I see no point in paying for coating that is worse than the aluminized coating that comes on exhaust pipe.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/1835930...7602956888623/

I threw mine away and installed ARH. Yes ARH cost more but I suspect they will look as good as the finish on the Magnaflow stainless catback (see pic) that is nearly six years old compared to the rusty, peeling, and flaking JetHot's installed at the same time.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/1835930...7602956888623/

I would get the Ebay stainless exhaust before I would ever get the jet hot coating if that were my only two choices.

Pic of ARH after I threw the junk Jet hot coated exhaust away. I wasted over $900 in parts and labor only to spend it all over again to get the ARH exhaust.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/1835930...7602956888623/

 

If you actually ask the companies they will tell you that they will eventually rust before you even get it coated. The coating protects the headers and prolongs the life but on a street DD car, they will most likely rust if you live around here.

 

I wonder how it holds up on stainless headers. I've heard of guys getting their stainless headers coated. I'm guessing since they wont rust the coating will probably last for a long time.

 

The cars are stored inside all the time and the only water the exhuast has seen is from the two car washes they've been thru since the install. I didn't believe these pieces were going to out live the cars. Far from it. All I'm saying is, it's rediculous that these pieces are showing rust in this amount of time and the limited number of miles that have been put on them. No matter where you live.

 

Nice car. Thank you for the pics.

So the first picture shows the Jet Hots after six years, correct? If ours last (and I can stand to look at them rust) that long, I will definitely be replacing them with ARH. At the time I puchased the headers, I wasn't completely sold on the ARH's, plus I found the Jet Hots for pretty good price. You're right, the ARH's are quite an investment, but well worth it compared to the competition. Stainless steel, excellent fitment, choice of catted or ORY, and a very good flowing Y-merge. Definitely the way to go. Live and learn, I guess.

I agree with you on the ebay headers too. If you're gonna go cheap, you may as well get the cheapest.

One good thing is, we installed the exhaust ourselves, so I don't have any labor cost. Just the price of the parts and the loss of our time. Like I said, live and learn.

 

Yeah, I was curious about this as well. Will the coating just start to rust and eventually flake off as well? Anybody had any experience with coated stainless steel headers?

 

Do all of these coatings begin to show rust after only a couple hundred miles? I had no grand delusions that these headers would outlast the cars. My point is how quickly they've begun to deteriorate.

 

I dont think the coating its self can rust. And since the stainless already has heat retaining capabilities, i would assume its a mutual benefit where they kinda help eachother. It would probably do a good job of keeping velocity up.