what is the life expectancy of a ceramic header? how about stainless? i mean before rust or anything else gets to it and eats it. i live in chicago and we get a lot of snow, hence, a lot of salt. is it worth the loot?

y0 sup man. I live in Orland Park...30mins to chicago. Im buyin DC sports CC headers soon but my friends and I have different places on buyin our stuff; what headers u lookin for...4-2-1 4-1...I want one place and only 1 place to get my stuff, im sick of buyin stuff here n there cuz u lose a lot of money individually rather than a group buy plus gettin to know them can get u sponsers and it's jus smarter, people u can trust, people that wont ever rip u off or bitch. (this small shop:Top Speed) in china-town, they're good. Let's both go in alrite?
my email is
LouisKang12@yahoo.com
email me anytime.
DO u have a crew or sumptin?
Gimmie ur info bro
and to answer ur question
Stainless steel last longer and i hear that it deflects salt in the winter whereas CC dont really do much.
I wanna kno if theres a warrenty on them.
CC is better aganst heat tho, and i believe a lil lighter.
All in all same HP more or less a half a horse at the wheels.

All I'm gonna say is Ceramic holds the heat better....and looks nice all the time....Stainless...looks good when its polished....retards less heat....and will most probably outlast the Ceramic Header when used all year round...especially winter.

Ceramic headers will last longer than your stock headers, and the stock headers are meant to last the life of the car...
So that should answer your question.... And if you live somewhere where there is a lot of salt in the air, you definitely need to go with the Stainless headers. Salty air will slowly but surely corrode the ceramic in the headers.

how would you maintain a ceramic header ???.

Headers don't really need to be maintained. You install them and let them do what they do best.
When I wash my car, I let my engine cool and wipe them down with a damp towel just to get the
dirt and grime off, and that's about it.

Stainless looks sweet when it goes purple...looks very fast!!

do stainless rust pretty bad or what .

the headers, whether stainless steel or ceramic, will outlast the projected life expectancy of your car of around 180k miles. just keep it clean and dont worry about it.

where can i get some header wrap to reduce heat? i wanna reduce underhood temperature

This is not a smart comment.

ANY thin walled, welded mild steel tube is not going to outlast a cast iron manifold. Expecially after thousands of heat cycles.

Additionally, ceramic is inert. It will not react with salt. The mild steel underneath will, and adventually, start to rust out due to rock chips, thermal expansion cracks etc.

Finally, most stainless steel corodes in a salt filled environment. There are obviously exceptions to this, however most of the common ones do.

Becareful when doing this. Header wrap has a tendancy to trap moisture. This trapped moisture speeds up the corosion process of the steel. If you want to reduce underhood temps, get a good ceramic coating, or fabricate a heat shield.

But to answer your question directly, Summit Racing or Jegs have header wrap. Your local Kragen/Pep Boys/etc might also have it.

So ceramic is better for the salty, winter areas?

try garage kwai by north... they specialize in civic and many of us go there
so they have our reputation..

Hmmm... Tough one. Since I don't live in a salty climate, I don't have any first hand experience on this. My statement was a theoretical answer.

I've had a ceramic coated header on my '95 EX Coupe (DC Sports) for about 6 years now. It has lots of rust spots comming out from the weld areas and on the flange. I've had a friend that got a new header because his got a leak at the collector from rust.

Additionally, I've had a comptech SS header on my '00 GSR. After 2 years the bottom of the header had started to develop surface corosion and rust.

Finally, I don't know exactly what kind of salt places use. I know if you put a chunk of 304 SS in the ocean, it'll be fully rusted in a short period of time.

The best, IMHO, would be a quality SS header, and then have it ceramic coated by Swaintech, or Jet Hot, or another high end coater.

When it comes down to it, I think you're just best keeping a close eye on the header...

I know my stock cast iron one is TOTALLY rusted on the outside... looks like shit. When I get my World 2 I want to know what the best header would be. Looking for longevity, 4-2-1, and looks.

ok thanks wherecan i buy some ceramic coating, can i coat it and then wrap it ?