I was wondering if anyone could help me understand the benifits of stainless steel verses ceramic coated mild steel as far as headers are concerned?

I will be purchasing one of those DC headers... and have it coated by www.hpcoatings.com. I was wondering if there would be any benifits in getting a SS version of the header vs a cc coated mild steel since I am having it coated anyways.

thanks,
-Shing

 

There are two primary benefits to stainless in a header.

First, it doesn't rust. Even coated headers, subjected to enough heating and cooling cycles and weathering can start to develop pinhole rust.

Second stainless conducts heat poorly compared to mild steel. Thus, it tends to keep more heat in the exhaust gas and out of the engine bay. Coating a stainless header should give you better thermal characteristics than a coated mild steel header.

There are other benefits and drawbacks (the thermal coefficient of expansion is different, its more expensive, etc.), but those are the most important IMO.

UL

 

I would also think that there is a weight difference between the SS and ceramic. I believe the ceramic is alot lighter!

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by socal28
[B]I would also think that there is a weight difference between the SS and ceramic.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by shingles
[B]ceramic is lighter, but in the case of headers, it's just a coating over mild steel.

 

Stainless steel is about 8.0 g/cc (AISI 303)
Mid-grade mild steel is about 7.85 g/cc (AISI 4000 series)

Steels as a whole vary between 7.75 and 8.25 g/cc. I choose the 2 grades as a representation, someone could spend some more time and find the "perfect" steel.

That's a whopping 1.88% weight difference. Add on the ceramic coating and your weight is a wash.

I personally would go with stainless for the properties that shingles mentioned - resistence to corrosion and thermal properties. Or just use Ti

 

Regarding cost, unless you use a low grade of mild steel, the price difference will be small, and coating the MS will probably make it more expensive.