Ceramic Coated Headers
HDF Community Team
Joined: Jun 2006
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From: san antonio
On My experience, it's only good for a while a had enough with ceramic, after 15+k . Heat gun says hot same .as with out ceramic , then order the ceramic headers dyne tune the bike , 20 k latter the ceramics start to come off again . Good luck to you
Outstanding HDF Member
Joined: Jan 2010
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From: earth
Coating is nice for insulating but they haven't figured out how to make it shine like chrome yet. The Swain Tech real ceramic coating I used, is a whitish color and very rough, kinda reminds me of that fake snow flocking that you spray on stuff a christmas time, anyway the chrome shields cover the headpipe just fine but the muffler is just exposed with no cover, I didn't think a big white fuzzy muffler would match my chrome and black scheme too well, besides it would have cost about another $300 to cover the surface area of the big 4" 2:1 can, and I'm not sure there is a justifyible performance benefit to coating a muffler. Oh yeah, and the little gold spot doesn't bother me really, I wasn't bitchin about it, just thought it was relevant to the discussion.
Ultimate HDF Member
Joined: May 2008
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From: 'Noke, VA
Right, that goes without saying. However I was addressing (I thought) the reasoning behind the belief that stepped is always better than un-stepped.
HDF Community Team
Joined: Jun 2006
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From: san antonio
Fair enough.
Outstanding HDF Member
Joined: Jan 2010
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From: earth
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Outstanding HDF Member
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From: NorCal
ocezam-
My black Thunderheader is discolored at the heads after 15k miles. In fact, I can even see rust coming through at the heads. And the rest of the pipe is changing from black to brown.
The ceramic black heat shields still look perfect.
Just saying that ceramic coatings are not *that* durable, even with a proper tune.
My black Thunderheader is discolored at the heads after 15k miles. In fact, I can even see rust coming through at the heads. And the rest of the pipe is changing from black to brown.
The ceramic black heat shields still look perfect.
Just saying that ceramic coatings are not *that* durable, even with a proper tune.
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Joined: Jan 2010
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From: earth
Stepped headers are better suited for maximum effort drag racing motors that live in the upper RPMs, generating much faster exhaust gas speeds; with each step up there is less resitance to flow, but there is also a slowing effect, performance wise this is not favorable in a street machine. On a machine that operates in the lower RPM range, like the average street bike, a smaller primary that is the same diameter all the way to the collector, will produce higher exhaust gas velocity and in turn more torque down low where you need it. Will you notice the diference in power you actually feel between stepped or straight headers? Probably not but the straight header will produce slightly more power in the low to mid RPM range.