Burnt Headers...this sucks

[TheUser]

I have GT-40 P heads, and FMS Shorty P Headers (I guess they're P headers, they came w/ the car). Anyway, while the engine was out, I sanded the headers down to bare metal, cleaned them, painted them w/ 2 coats of POR 15, then used clear spray paint to clear them.

Got the engine back in and ready and started it up finally today. The engine started smoking almost immediately, but I thought nothing of it - figured it was oil etc burning off and looked down - MY HEADERS ARE BURNT TO A CRISP! After they cooled down, I picked at one of the bubbles w/ my finger and it flaked off and it looked like the POR 15 below might be ok, but I guess the clear is what burnt. This sucks!

I really don't want to buy new headers, so I might just keep them.

 

[Ozz]

You know headers almost always flake chrome plating off right? How was POR 15 and clear coat supposed to do any better?

 

[Aliate X]

polished ceramic is the way to go.

 

[TheUser]

You know headers almost always flake chrome plating off right? How was POR 15 and clear coat supposed to do any better?

Well, umm...I hoped it would. Seriously, I don't know. I guess I thought POR 15 was good on headers. All of the other header paint I've used hasn't been worth crap, so I gave it a try. Oh well I guess...

 

[Ozz]

I didn't mean to come off as a dick, I was just saying. We've all been there one way or another, at least I sure have

Polished ceramic are what I have, and even they wore down pretty quick. They looked like this brand new next to my stockers:

but now are a dull silver. While they may be dull, they still aer perfectly intact with no chips or anything of that nature. I am happy enough with that considering it could've been much worse.

I wonder how nickel plated headers hold up with their shine?

 

[kevin2m4]

por 15 isnt for heat coating

 

[Adams91LX]

they kinda remind me of crazypete's special undercarriage coating
bummer... lesson learned...
-a

 

[wythors]

I wonder how nickel plated headers hold up with their shine?

The ones I've seen have all turned blue/black almost immediately.

 

[Ozz]

The ones I've seen have all turned blue/black almost immediately.

Glad I didn't spend an extra $200 or so to take a chance!

 

[Roland69]

stainless ceramic coated would be nice

 

[TheUser]

Polished ceramic are what I have, and even they wore down pretty quick. They looked like this brand new next to my stockers:

but now are a dull silver. While they may be dull, they still aer perfectly intact with no chips or anything of that nature.

Any pics of what they look like now? I don't know...I don't have a show car, and there's a 50/50 chance I'll sell it within a year, but I'd like the headers to look decent without spending too much money.

 

[Ozz]

no pic but they look a hell of a lot better than the stock ones did.

 

[RYC CUKR]

...but now are a dull silver. While they may be dull, they still aer perfectly intact with no chips or anything of that nature...

You can go over the ceramic coating with a never dull compound and they should shine back up. That is what the jethot instructions said to do with my FRPP ceramics. It worked pretty good for me. Eventually they will dull back up.

For the original poster,

www.eastwood.com has some good stuff in their specialty paint section for high temp exhaust and header paint. Most of it is brush on and it really works pretty good. We use it on diesel generator engines, big ones, for the exhaust piping that goes outside of the building and I have been very happy with the results. Even 3 or 4 years later there is little to no rust on the exhaust piping.

 

[spiff]

hmm that sucks! Prolly stinks pretty bad too. I dunno much about that por stuff, but Im sure the clear just melted away too..

Oh well, there is still good metal under there so its no big deal! Just a lot of cleaning heh. Maybe some high temp spray paint after you get that off?

 

[Ozz]

You can go over the ceramic coating with a never dull compound and they should shine back up. That is what the jethot instructions said to do with my FRPP ceramics. It worked pretty good for me. Eventually they will dull back up.

Thanks, i'll have to try that!

 

[mob]

umm por 15 is made for coating headers and is works till 1400*, thats really weird especially since I was going to coat my headers with por15

 

[grey5.0beast]

prolly the clear

 

[Aliate X]

Here are what my ceramics look like after 1 year, this was bolted onto the new h/c/i setup. The rust spot is from when one of my stock mounts went out.

 

[Ozz]

^ Same as mine

 

[larrendeuce]

You can't use regular por-15, you need the high temp paint por-20.

http://www.por15.com/PRODUCTS/PRIMERPAINTSCOATINGS/HITEMPERATURE/POR20/tabid/148/Default.aspx