… what is the difference between “uncoated” stainless steel and “coated” stainless steel, and what did you guys go with, any input is appreciated. My main concern is rust. Thanks in advance.

Dan / CIA will only warranty COATED headers for life.

 

What’s the difference between them?

 

You noted your main concern is rust, so 304 will be fine for that. But coatings can also help dissipate heat, and is one of the reasons a lot of people opt for the coatings.

 

What are you running?

 

I run a set of Dan's Try-y headers, coated.

 

Beautiful car. Racing red for the extra HP.

What kind of numbers does that baby put out in terms of horsepower?

 

Damn bro looks badass got some serious money in that engine bay, how has the coating been holding up?

 

Thanks, It wasn't all done at once. I've been working at it awhile.
The coating has held up well, looks the same as the day it was installed over 10+ years ago. But my car has never been a real daily driver, so maybe someone else can chime in better on how the coating holds up during regular use.

 

I've got coated mild steel Quad-1's. They've been on the car for 6 or 7 years now. A couple winters worth of driving and they are due to be stripped down and re-coated in the area of the collectors but looking from above they still look great.

-Brian

 

Honestly, how could you buy headers and not coat them?!
For the thermal properties alone, they are worth it!
They look better, longer, too.

 

My question is what is the difference between “uncoated” stainless steel and “coated” stainless steel, and what did you guys go with, any input is appreciated. My main concern is rust. Thanks in advance

For a regular street car/daily driver, the main difference will how much lighter your wallet will be.

You noted your main concern is rust, so 304 will be fine for that. But coatings can also help dissipate heat, and is one of the reasons a lot of people opt for the coatings.

Like he says, rust will not be an issue with 304. Factory in many cases has used the lesser grade 409 stainless. They start to 'look' brown like rust, but they're just fine. The factory exhausts on our cars are a 409. Still have the original on the '95.

As far as heat, coatings do not help dissipate, they actually help insulate to get the heat to keep going down the pipe and out the back. And to keep underhood temps lower. And as far as street car, you're not going to be generating anymore heat if the rest of engine is stock. And even if it isn't, on the street, the time you are actually making more heat relative to the rest of your driving would still be negligible.

I've run all variants over 30 years on the mustangs. Nickel plated, coated nickel, plain, coated plain, and finally ebay polished stainless. Those are still on the 85. Probably 20 years, geesh time flies. Other then the heat discoloration, they are just as sound as new.

So IMHO, if you're going for the look, go coated, but that coating as you hear others, still doesn't last more than several years. None of mine did. (in a snow climate) If you just want ones that will last the car, plain 304 stainless will be fine.

 

If you are on a budget, by all means stick with the stock manifolds, they work great. If you want headers at all, you should really coat them for the thermal advantages. It doesn't cost that much more.Your automotive wiring will thank you with far less electrical failures and gremlins over time. I have coated an re-coated many sets of headers (I get about 5 years out of daily driver headers before they dull, but I get closer to 8 years with my fun cars). The coatings are better than they ever have been, and honestly, there is no other way for me.
Most header coatings claim to reduce underhood temps by 50% when compared to uncoated headers.
Here is a little Jet Hot comparison I had a link to:

 

Personal taste, from a visual standpoint, I like the look of polished 304 just as it starts to color. This before it starts to go brown.

304 on its own does keep heat in better than mild steel , not as well as coated as far as I understand.

So, one would surmize , coated 304 would be the best but , to me , it cheapens the appearance of the header.

The coating people talk about their process coating inside and out.

I thought , for me, the best solution would be to have my headers just coated on the insides.
As soon as you bring that up with the coaters, their story changes about how well the inside coating actualy works🤔🤔.

Mine are due to come off to be cleaned up

I might try the inside coating this time.
I need to make a "fan" nozzle for the media blaster to try and profile the insides of the tubes.

 

Might not be a Clear Image option, but for thermal coatings in general - give this a try...

White Lightning Exhaust Coatings – Swain Tech Coatings | Industrial Coatings | High Performance Racing Coatings

I did the exhaust manifolds and up-pipes with it. While it's not blingey, it does work well. Not many miles/hours on it yet for first hand experience, but something to consider.

 

Since I am not that skilled with wrenches and I only recently got a poor mans lift, I hate doing headers. I would spend the money to gold plate them if it A) kept my wiring from melting and B) looked pretty for a long time. For these reasons, I only ever buy stainless headers that are coated inside and out.
I don't understand cheaping out on something that is fairly expensive already, and so hard (for me) to install.

Edit: My first Impala headers were the Arizona Speed and Marines. They could burn lots of things.

 

Swaintech, are the real deal all right.
We have had pistons done by them.

Coating Stainless, outside.
Like I said, it it a visual thing to me.
I dont have heat issues as I was somewhat careful when I routed my headers and components.
My exhaust pipes , are mild steel as at the time my tig work was not up to snuff.
The are ceramic front to back.

 

FWIW my headers are 22 years old with over 100k mi. Jet Hot coating. Still look great

regardless of what material the headers are made of, get them ceramic coated. I have always used Jet Hot

exhaust scavenging is better and under hood temps, and their contents, are cooler. You can wrap your hands around a ceramic coated header after 30 min or less of turning off motor.

 

Their really good quality, and sounds amazing but I regret my purchase

 

So all the header talk has me shopping Quad 1's (instead of TriY's) for new set up. In checking Dan's website, I see that original TriY's are +/-$665.00 uncoated plus $275.00 for his coating. The Gen 2 TriY's are listed at $815.00 plus $275.00 for his coating...

Hello everyone I’m in the market in purchasing some CIA try-y headers for my 96 Impala ss Dan quoted me about $1600 for the try-y’s they are 304 stainless steel “uncoated” headers?
My question is what is the difference between “uncoated” stainless steel and “coated” stainless steel, and what did you guys go with, any input is appreciated. My main concern is rust. Thanks in advance

How did you get to $1,600.00 for uncoated? Are Dan's website prices that out of date? I guess your buying some sort of catalytic converter set up too, but I still couldn't get to $1600.00 (uncoated).​

Their really good quality, and sounds amazing but I regret my purchase

Ok, you got me curious. Good quality and sound; what is the regret? What else would you have done?

Keep in mind the engine is an air pump. There is no need for a bigger air exit, if you are not putting more air in it.

 

So all the header talk has me shopping Quad 1's (instead of TriY's) for new set up. In checking Dan's website, I see that original TriY's are +/-$665.00 uncoated plus $275.00 for his coating. The Gen 2 TriY's are listed at $815.00 plus $275.00 for his coating...

How did you get to $1,600.00 for uncoated? Are Dan's website prices that out of date? I guess your buying some sort of catalytic converter set up too, but I still couldn't get to $1600.00 (uncoated).

Ok, you got me curious. Good quality and sound; what is the regret? What else would you have done?

Keep in mind the engine is an air pump. There is no need for a bigger air exit, if you are not putting more air in it.

I bought the tri y gen 2 304 stainless steel

 

I have some gen1 tri-y's from Dan on my car. They're at least 10 years old and they look like hammered sh%t. The coating is just about dead on them. They're still 100% structurally sound so pulling them off and having them re-done is on my list of things to do.

 

I've never bothered coating stainless headers. Could it beneficial? Yes, coating will help retain heat/energy but the HP gain from that I believe would be marginal at best, especially on a T304 stainless header that already has better heat retention than mild steel. Coating will help reduce temps fairly signifiangly around the header, but these cars have plenty of room and I just don't see the need, especially with headers that fill as well as dans. Hell, I ran mild steel uncoated flow tech afterburners and also Borla shorties on my 94 as a daily driver for years and with just some careful bending and wrapping of the AC lines I never had one heat related issue or failure caused by the headers and neither of those fit nearly as well (and the Borla shorties put the pipes close to just about everything you wouldn't want pipes close to)
.

I wouldn't bother coating stainless, only mild steel. It's just something else that can start to peel/chip/flake eventually and look cruddy whereas raw T304 will pretty much last the life of the car and aside from some discoloration, will never look like crap. Coating stainless headers may help in the REAL long run to prevent stress cracking from years of heat cycles but good brand T304 headers with high quality welds usually last people the life of the car without issue. I've installed Kooks and American Racing headers in friend's daily driven cars 15 years ago and hundreds of thousands of miles later and they still have no issues.

Personally, I'd only coat stainless on an application where the headers sit dangerously close to vital components, and on these cars that really isn't a problem. These are big engine bays with a lot of space and air flow and Dan's headers fit extremely well.

 

I appreciate all the feedback guys. Thanks

 

Here you go FunBags.

dan.ferraro@clearimageautomotive.com

 

I have a set of gen 2 tri-y and high flow cats i purchased new for sale if anyone wants them. Shoot me a pm.

 

You still have them? I tried to PM you but I don't think I have enough post yet.