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Header question


Ceramic or Stainless steel header?  

15 members have voted

  1. 1. What is better?

    • Ceramic
      7
    • Stainless
      8


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How come? SolLes- How is the 3 inch exhaust on an NA engine? You still got it? I am thinking of upgrading mine soon to 3 inches but its going to take a while for me to afford the turbo kit so I'll be running a 3 inch on a NA engine... Would it be alright?

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Ceramic will rust. The coating scratches off easily.

 

3" is too big for NA.

 

Turbo? You're gearing is pretty close for a turbo setup.

 

FYI, all the ceramic is is mild steel with a cermaic coating.

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How come? SolLes- How is the 3 inch exhaust on an NA engine? You still got it? I am thinking of upgrading mine soon to 3 inches but its going to take a while for me to afford the turbo kit so I'll be running a 3 inch on a NA engine... Would it be alright?

 

The Tanabe piping is 60mm, which is less than 2.5".

 

 

Stainless.

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stainless is nice, but because it expands and contracts a lot, youll find yourslef tightening the header bolts often. i would personally chose ceramic, 4-2-1 with long collectors and smaller primary tube diameter for street, 4-1 with medium to short collectors and slightly larger primaries for race. primaries should not go above 1 3/4 unless it s pushing a lot of boost. its not smart to buy a header just by the manufacturer, theres a lot more then how expensive it is.

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youl only have to retighten 1 or 2 times than they wont loosen anymore. first week you drive the car with stainless header installed , good idea to retighten while still hot a few times until they wont tighten anymore. and i dont mean overtighten either. antiseize should be used on all bolts you know are hard to get off after theve been on for a while. exhaust , strut top bolts so on.

theres no comarison between ceramic and stainless. ceramic headers are low grade mild steel with a supposed ceramic coating to protect it. might last a year and still look half decent. stainless will turn colors like blue and goldish but looks good after a while. stainless will not rust for a long time. also for those who have never heard of this,(even SSR is about to learn somin maybe , lol) , twist a piece of copper wire around each runner close to flange and it helps to keep your stainless header from discoloring. pretty cool eh.

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i agree with ssr, i'd go with stainless. i've had the megan racing header on my car for a few months, but i haven't seen the blue/purple discoloration like i was expecting. rather they're an awesome gold-color now (looks really nice imo). i bought a no-brand stainless 4-2-1 for my old sohc motor from ebay, and it turned blue-ish within an hour of installing it. but i'm representing megan racing all the way...nice throaty sound in low rpms. i've heard smsp headers are the best, but i'll never be able to afford one.

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The color change in the header has nothing to do with the quality of the header. My $550+ stainless comptech header started turning colors withing a couple hours of driving it. I think either way you'll be fine. I had a ceramic DC header on my del sol for a year (still on there) and there are still no signs of rust on it. Plus it's driven year round. Not saying they won't rust, just that from my experience, it hasn't after a year and a half so far.

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The color change in the header has nothing to do with the quality of the header. My $550+ stainless comptech header started turning colors withing a couple hours of driving it. I think either way you'll be fine. I had a ceramic DC header on my del sol for a year (still on there) and there are still no signs of rust on it. Plus it's driven year round. Not saying they won't rust, just that from my experience, it hasn't after a year and a half so far.

 

Profile's Toda header:

 

DSC03784.jpg

 

Also went blue for a while (link):

 

http://profiles2000.import-tech.net/photos/DSC_0037.jpg

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The color change in the header has nothing to do with the quality of the header.

 

i know...i was just making a comparison between the two. i've only had 4 different headers before, but that's enough to make my 2 cents

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Stainless will change colors no matter what.

 

They turn blue because they have oil from your hands on them. Gold when they are clean. Mine turned gold after 3 miles. The gold color is even more pronounced now. I cleaned it off with rubbing alcohol before installing, then used latex gloves when installing. Then wiped it down with RA again before starting.

 

Only way to get rid of the blue it sand it or use the blu crap from bike shops.

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