The ceramic is just a coating and can scrape or flake off, the stainless headers will always be made of stainless. If low price stainless headers were available when I bought my headers I'd have them.

 

The best way to make the paint adhear to the metal is to sandblast the headers. When you sandblast you put a profile on the metal for the paint to hold on to and not come off. Now even by doing this some of the paint will still want to burn off. The best brand the highest temp is VHT 2000 deg.
You can go to your local hardware store and pick-up a portable blaster and a bag of play sand and with an air compressor hooked up blast the metal to a what we call a commercial blast. This will have a light grey looking color once blasted. Prior to blasting make sure there is no oil or grease on the headers, if there is use a good degreaser and clean real good. Once blasted do not handle the headers on the blast area because this will apply oils from your skin and the paint will not adhear good at those points and it will come off. Hang the headers up some where with an s hook or coat hanger with the collector down so you can paint it. Warm the header with a propane torch letting the heat go up through the collector and once the metal has warmed up to at least between 70 to 80 deg. then remove torch and start spraying a light tack coat on and let it dry for about 15 mins. and continue to do this until you have sufficientlly coated all the metal. Let them air dry for an hour or two and then you can use the torch to heat cure the paint the same way you did to warm the metal through the collector. The paint should last longer than normal by doing this.

 

w^^^ This. You decide based on the pros/cons, and the pros are very tempting. This is one of the few modifications you can make for $40~ that improves many aspects of the engine character. It has applications for street and racing, provided the supporting materials are also used.

But this is not why I am posting; I am here to add a new way of thinking to your process. Right now you are thinking "to header wrap / or not to header wrap". Well did you ever consider a little of both? Or somewhere in between? Perhaps instead of the wrap, you can make a couple of shiny aluminum heat shields, or add a creative duct that separates the hot parts of the engine from the "colder" parts, such as the inlet tube and intake manifold. Just because you opt out of the header wrap doesn't mean you are stuck with no other options; there are many other ways to control the flow of exhaust energy under the hood, from ducting to shiny materials to turbo blankets to coatings. You can also spray water/methanol into the engine to reduce EGT during WOT and this will also help clean the carbon from the pistons and make the engine safer to run on pump gas in general.

 

^^^ I like the way you think! Thanks for the tips.

 

Thank you for taking the time to offer painting tips, much appreciated!

 

Problem is those "tips" regarding wrapping LT1 headers are unfounded. Years ago when the majority of f-bodys driven were dailies there was testimony of the damage done to headers when wrapped. Members like shbox have been on these sites for 20 years if not more. This talon clown just found this website and started in on his diatribe of contradicting the **** out of himself with veteran members who've actually built and raced their cars. You said yours is a daily. The winters in Ohio can be brutal and I know there's no shortage of road salt. If you drive your car in the winter in the snow and rain then do not wrap your headers. If you are going to paint them you will have to do so after every winter season. Road salt will destroy your paint. Hopefully for your sake that road salt hasn't eaten away at the chassis to make weak points in your suspension for those top speed runs...

 

^^^this X1000. Like I said earlier my set of pacesetters lasted not even half a year and only seen 1 snow storm and a very mild NC winter. Usually depending on what part of the state your in rust isn't an issue down here. My first Camaro came from VA and was fairly rusty, I'm assuming from all the snow and salt. My brother is lucky, he lived in CO for 5 years and his car doesn't have a lick of rust on it. He told me that out there they don't use salt because everything would be destroyed in a week lol.

 

The internet's fears of header wrap and mild steel headers are pretty laughable.

Your car isn't going to instantly catch on fire. The chances of the wrap soaking up enough road grime and oil to become a hazard is pretty non-existent.

The Pacesetter headers will rust, just like any mild steel header. They will still, however, last a rather long time. Certainly longer than a year, and probably longer than you will keep the car.

And while the headers I have wrapped have been 304 stainless, I daily drove a GTO with wrapped headers for 4-5 years without issue. I pulled the headers off and had them coated for aesthetic reasons when I painted the engine, and they are still holding together to this day. I also currently daily drive a Silverado with wrapped OBX headers. Again, it isn't a ticking time bomb.

 

If you say so. But I've actually seen 3 year-old headers taken off of a car where half of the structural integrity of the headers.....was the wrap.

The headers came off the car, crap (corroded/rusted metal) fell out the tubes, headers were unwrapped, and metal that was adhered to the wrap tore off the tubes with the wrap. This left holes actually in the header tubes.

Been there.....seen it. Wasn't a laughing matter to the car owner. Just because YOU haven't seen it, doesn't detract from the credibility of those of us who have.


And there you have it.

KW

 

User experience may vary, as with anything online.

My hotside has been wrapped and been taken apart multiple times for cutting/welding etc, pipe looks fine. Bet it gets hotter than normal NA primaries too.

But again, once you nick anything or tear it, wrap becomes an ugly annoying pain in the ***. So for DD NA headers? No way in hell.

 

Well I DD it during the warm months; it is parked for winter. I know what you mean though about the salt making weak points in the chassis. The 93 auto I have had for 5 years, I did in fact drive it through 3 entire winters. The underside of that thing looks horrible, whereas the red one looks great underneath (garage kept, no winters). My control arms look like they are about to rust through on the auto, so I've been wanting to replace them before they give out while I'm driving! So no, red one is not driven during the winter, and looks like it never has been.

 

Ok guys, so header wrap generally lessens header life, yet results may vary apparently. My main goal of doing this was to lower under hood temps, and had heard it helps exhaust flow by keeping the heat in the exhaust system. Initially I though it was a win-win. So now knowing that it lessens header life and also collects road grime, I'm leaning towards avoiding this now. I was also unaware that header paint can peel and chip? I thought that stuff was good to go once applied. Thanks to those who recommended TSP headers! Seeing they are the same price as the Pacesetters but are stainless, I'd be retarded to buy the Pacesetters! Thank you very much for bringing this to my attention. So I think I'll go with the TSP's and leave them be. How long should those last on a DD that does not see winter, driving 15-20k a year? And actually, what affect would header wrap have on these stainless headers? Everyone said stainless was much better (understandably), so what would the expectations be having wrapped stainless, as compared to mild steel?

 

My friend here in Florida which experiences 100% zero chance of snow or road salt had the collectors on his pacesetters rust into Swiss cheese in about 2 years. I'd hate to see how they fair in a state that actually has snow and road salt.

Honestly unless you have a turbo car I wouldn't bother.

 

I've had the same pacesetter painted long tubes for 10 years, although they may have screwed up and sent me coated ones, I thought it was silver paint but it's lasted. The collectors are rust colored now, but tops of the primary's are still silver. The car had not seen a garage the first 5 years, and was driven in CT, NJ, NY, PA, MD and WV salt and sand in snow in winters. It took trips to NC at the beach and sat in salt air, and I never washed the headers, yet no holes a decade later.

Wraps are great for stainless because stainless conducts more heat than mild steel, so wrapping a set of stainless headers on a purely race car or 100% fair weather summer car in the south is a great idea, but wrapping mild steel headers on a 4 season DD in the salt belt is a horrible idea.

 

Basically if you want to wrap them, don't drive the car in the rain or snow/slush and your headers should last just fine.

 

Honestly.....being stainless steel, they could easily last the life of a NEW car.......

The stainless steel metal will last a lot longer than the mild steel headers under any circumstances. But they are not absolutely impervious to long-term, outside stresses. Eventually, the wraps will cause metal fatigue damage JUST due to the heat retention (extreme and constant heat cycles) caused by the wraps.

KW

 

If you dont want wrap try ceramic coating. Just dont ever touch it.

 

I have ceramic coated pacesetters, 2 years no issues. I live in AZ though, hot and dry. My pacesetter mild steel y-pipe? Destroyed. Burned holes through it at the clamps off the headers. As far as temps, my primaries don't exceed 240 ish degrees at idle vs 500+ I've seen on stock manifolds. Big difference.

 

How many times have you tripped and fallen on your head?