i am about to buy a header for my car and i dont know weather to go with the stainless or the ceramic. whats the difference? the sainless is about 20 bucks cheaper.

 

stainless wont rust and is better looking. I bought a DC stainless because i dident want rust and it looks great! I would go stainless.

 

Stainless will most likely not rust, and will look better. I have a stainless, it looks great.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SIUTAU &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i am about to buy a header for my car and i dont know weather to go with the stainless or the ceramic. whats the difference? the sainless is about 20 bucks cheaper.</TD></TR></TABLE>That's funny... stainless is usually more expensive than ceramic.

I have a Greddy stainless and love it. Very clean looking under the engine bay.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nub.96ek &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">That's funny... stainless is usually more expensive than ceramic.

I have a Greddy stainless and love it. Very clean looking under the engine bay. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah, if ceramic could some how be shiny I'd rock it. But stainless just really makes the engine bay look better.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JDM-EJ1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Yeah, if ceramic could some how be shiny I'd rock it. But stainless just really makes the engine bay look better. </TD></TR></TABLE>I know right... I wish stainless headers stayed that bronze color they turn to when you first put them in and start driving... that shyt looks hot!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nub.96ek &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I know right... I wish stainless headers stayed that bronze color they turn to when you first put them in and start driving... that shyt looks hot!</TD></TR></TABLE>

I've read that some have. I believe they were like JUN headers, but those headers are really expensive.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by D16Z6 Civic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">stainless wont rust and is better looking. I bought a DC stainless because i dident want rust and it looks great! I would go stainless.</TD></TR></TABLE>

stainless still rusts. It just takes longer to rust do to less impurity of what kind of element was mixed in. I know because I took metalurgy.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JunY &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> stainless still rusts. It just takes longer to rust do to less impurity of what kind of element was mixed in. I know because I took metalurgy. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Really? Never knew that. Good to know.

 

Facts

Common stainless steel is made of Iron and less than 2% of Carbon, or a tri-mix, which has a high resistance for heats of up to 2300F to about 3000 Fahrenheit degrees(1300~1600 centigrade) before it melts. Regular car temperatures don't go that high, but for racecars it is common to see stainless steel because of that ductility to withstand the pressure and heat before it loses strength.

Ceramic coated headers have a better heat dissipation do to it's elements (this could vary by what's in the ceramic such as Saturated iron, copper, etc.) meaning for daily driving conditions would be better. Also it pretty much protects the base metal, steel, wont rust easily. But the question where why racecar drivers dont use them is because of its low temperature resistance of about 2400F or less degrees (I've seen low as 800F). Meaning it'll crack/peel at high temperature and stress related elements.

I have taken metalurgy, Welding(GTAW, GMAW, SMAW, etc. certified in most things), and ceramics.

 

I saw a GReddy stainless header and it looks almost like my stock cast iron manifold without the heat shield. You can kinda see it in the pic below.


Here's a pic of another stainless header.


And here's one of a ceramic header.


I think the ceramic one looks better.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JDM-EJ1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Really? Never knew that. Good to know. </TD></TR></TABLE>

yup. But to have Stainless rust....it takes "HELL" of a Long *** time. REALLY Long. I could show you a pic of a SS dish rusted from work, I'll go and take a pic of it tommorow and post it.

 

damn...i didn't know a greddy header turns that black...turns me off to greddy

 

where are you located? ceramic wouldn't be good for colder/wetter climates.

 

why is ceramic worse for wet conditoions? I think it'd be better. ceramis i think does look better, and its better for heat, like ceramic coating blocks heat, itll push more heat out the back tailpipe rather than in the engine bay. I ceramic coated all my heatshields and a bunch of stuff on my 96 D16Y7 car, and I can vouch for the shifter being cooler cause of the heatshield being coated, and in atlanta today we have a heat index of over 105. If itll keep the interior cooler, make the car run cooler, make the a/c more effectient or effective, or make the radiator fan turn on less, its better.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Redline96LX &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">why is ceramic worse for wet conditoions? I think it'd be better. ceramis i think does look better, and its better for heat, like ceramic coating blocks heat, itll push more heat out the back tailpipe rather than in the engine bay. I ceramic coated all my heatshields and a bunch of stuff on my 96 D16Y7 car, and I can vouch for the shifter being cooler cause of the heatshield being coated, and in atlanta today we have a heat index of over 105. If itll keep the interior cooler, make the car run cooler, make the a/c more effectient or effective, or make the radiator fan turn on less, its better.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Ceramic has Pores. If any type of liquid gets trapped in it, it causes the coating to peel off or crack(elemetal Stress) when heated. You'll eventually see rust build up around the welded areas. But Ceramic does desepate heat and keep heat in better.

"AND"

You might want to read what I posted above.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JunY &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Ceramic has Pores. If any type of liquid gets trapped in it, it causes the coating to peel off or crack(elemetal Stress) when heated. You'll eventually see rust build up around the welded areas. But Ceramic does desepate heat and keep heat in better.

"AND"

You might want to read what I posted above. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Awesome man, thanks for that info!!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JDM-EJ1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Awesome man, thanks for that info!!</TD></TR></TABLE>

No problem

PS- Give me time on getting that pic of rust on SS.

 

Ceramic. Rusting around welding joints.


Stainless Steel Rusting.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by D16Z6 Civic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">stainless wont rust and is better looking. I bought a DC stainless because i dident want rust and it looks great! I would go stainless.</TD></TR></TABLE>

ROFL

 

i have a ceramic DC 4-1, granted ceramic chips and will eventually look bad but it insulates heat better. plus i got it for a 100 bux used in mint condition

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nub.96ek &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I know right... I wish stainless headers stayed that bronze color they turn to when you first put them in and start driving... that shyt looks hot!</TD></TR></TABLE>

I read a thread a long time ago that told you how to get your SS header to turn bronze.

You spray wd40 on a rag and wipe it all over the header. Then you start up the car and the heat will start to burn off the WD40 and will leave a bronzed look. Make sure you leave the hood open as it creates a lot of smoke.

I've heard that ceramic dissipates heat better than SS. SS is probably more expensive due to its shininess

 

stainless will rust a little i would think but not as much as ceramic stainless holds up pretty well

 

Okay....you two above me haven't really read my posts.....

SS costs more do to the process of making it more pure(less rust causing elements). Ceramic coated headers are ussually Mild steel which have a higher carbon which causes rust easily.

But that gold color change means the Chromium or nickle that's mixed in the SS has changed elements, only the outside. Tendency of the color change wont matter as much but the base metal elements would change and cause brittleness and cause to rust quicker depending on moisture in the air.

 

My DC SS header:


Turned multi color hahaha, but I cleaned it up..back to normal SS color again.