Coating ARH Headers Yes or No

[Jack B]

There has been a lot of pro/con posts about Belangers versus ARH. Most of the Belanger's seem to be coated, however, a lot of the ARH headers seem to be non-coated.

Questions:

1. Stainless (ARH) is not as easy to coat as the aluminized Belangers, when ARH headers are coated, how is the durability of the coating.

2. Does the color of the coating affect the look or durability.

3. Has anyone had an under-hood heating issue with uncoated ARH headers, such as burnt O2 sensor wiring or issues with the fuse box wiring?

[parabs]

There has been a lot of pro/con posts about Belangers versus ARH. Most of the Belanger's seem to be coated, however, a lot of the ARH headers seem to be non-coated.

Questions:

1. Stainless (ARH) is not as easy to coat as the aluminized Belangers, when ARH headers are coated, how is the durability of the coating.

2. Does the color of the coating affect the look or durability.

3. Has anyone had an under-hood heating issue with uncoated ARH headers, such as burnt O2 sensor wiring or issues with the fuse box wiring?

I burnt the o2’s on my Gen 4 headed Gen 3 with uncoated ARH headers. Although I am not going to lay blame exclusively on the uncoated headers, the install may not have been exactly ideal so take my real world experience with a grain of salt. I do plan to install a set of jet hot coated ARH on my Gen 5 and I will certainly be installing calvo’s fuse box heat shield.

[cubeman]

My gen v has the arh headers and crazy amount of insulation wrapped around the wiring. 17k miles before I installed calvos heat shield for my fuse box just for additional protection

[Space Truckin]

My ARH are coated with Swain Tech Coating (true ceramic coating) and I also have the Calvo heat shield. During the 9.0L Stroker build I asked Mark J to provide extra extra extreme heat wrap/ protection to any and everything that would cause me grief later...FWIW

[Voice of Reason]

I burnt my upstream O2 wires up with my uncoated ARH headers. They weren’t wrapped at all and I had to have them replaced at the dealer for about $600. The downstream O2s show some signs of heat issues. I’ve completely wrapped them, and the new upstream O2s, and have not had problems in the past approximately 5k miles. But those have been mostly street miles, I didn’t get much to the track this year.

[Jack B]

My ARH are coated with Swain Tech Coating (true ceramic coating) and I also have the Calvo heat shield. During the 9.0L Stroker build I asked Mark J to provide extra extra extreme heat wrap/ protection to any and everything that would cause me grief later...FWIW

what color is the coating and any signs of it not adhering?

[Stealth78]

What are everyone's opinions in regards to coating and wrapping? Will wrapping a coated header be harmful on the coating? Should both be done?

[Space Truckin]

what color is the coating and any signs of it not adhering?

The color of Swain Tech coating is white, I actually like looking in engine bay and seeing the white headers vs standard black, silver. As of 3K +/- miles no signs of flaking or discoloration...:)

[Jack B]

What are everyone's opinions in regards to coating and wrapping? Will wrapping a coated header be harmful on the coating? Should both be done?

Wrapping will dramatically raise the temp of the header, therefore. it depends on the rated temp of the coating. Balenger does not like their headers being wrapped

[texasram]

Racing a hellcat last night makes me want headers for louder sound, i won the race but he won the sound war.

[Stealth78]

Racing a hellcat last night makes me want headers for louder sound, i won the race but he won the sound war.

Agreed. One of the local New England members also has a HellCat making around 850HP (maybe more) and it sounds unbelievable!

[texasram]

Agreed. One of the local New England members also has a HellCat making around 850HP (maybe more) and it sounds unbelievable!

Exactly! insane is an understatement

[TrackAire]

I used Jet Hot in color black on my ARH back around 2010. The finish looks just as good as the day as they were installed, pretty impressed with 8500 miles on them.

For looks and to keep the stainless from discoloring over time, I can vouch for Jet Hot. But I do not think that the header coatings are really going to do squat for keeping the heat down in confined spaces with minimal air flow (especially once the car is turned off). There is radiant heat and convection heat....if the header coatings were that good, automobile manufacturers would be using it instead of the physical barriers (heat shields) they now use.

I can't remember the name of the company right now, but there is a company that you send in your headers to and they make customer heat shields that look awesome and encapsulate the heat with a physical barrier and air gap.

Edit:
Here is the name of the company I was thinking of: http://headershield.com/

[Vipes]

I had the ARH 2k degree coated and the coat is holding up well. I even coated the J-pipe and honestly noticed cooler temps in the lower cabin and engine bay. I’ll check back after a year on coating durability since I’ve only had this for 4 months.

http://i65.tinypic.com/333iqs0.png

[parabs]

I can't remember the name of the company right now, but there is a company that you send in your headers to and they make customer heat shields that look awesome and encapsulate the heat with a physical barrier and air gap.

I have thought about this very approach being effective. I understand the Gen 4/5 factory manifolds utilize this approach.

[TrackAire]

I have thought about this very approach being effective. I understand the Gen 4/5 factory manifolds utilize this approach.

I just remembered the name and website of the company:

http://headershield.com/

[parabs]

29595

Holy hell!

[Jack B]

I have thought about this very approach being effective. I understand the Gen 4/5 factory manifolds utilize this approach.

The factory uses a double wall header.

[TrackAire]

29595

Holy hell!

I really think that you have to take all marketing claims with a major grain of salt. There are a lot of ways to measure heat and the cooling effect.....what matters is does the cooling effect solve your "heat induced" problem? Tough to say in the above graph without knowing a lot more about where and how the measurements are being taken. Based on my high school physics education, the barrier type of system they use makes a lot of sense and mimics what a lot of OEM manufacturers use around certain exhaust parts, mufflers, etc.

If you're having heat induced problems, the first thing to figure out is the heat problem caused when you're moving at speed, after shutdown and sitting still or is it occurring during both movement and standstill? The answer will point you in the correct direction of what type of heat barrier, insulation or coating you should use.

Personally, I've found that if a product does half of what the advertising claims say, you're doing good.

[ViperTony]

The factory uses a double wall header.

Jack, I'd call Nick and the guys at ARH they'll tell you how to approach this. If it were me, I'd jet hot coat them black AND wrap them. Reason for the black coating is that I've been told, allegedly, the brighter coatings can overheat the wrap material but this may be folklore. Being that the ARH headers are stainless steel I'd have no worries about the header wrap possibly trapping moisture and damaging the header vs. a mild-steel header. Just my opinion and not based on personal experience, yet. :)

[Simms]

I had ceramic coates ARH headers on my 2014. The car was tracked, and the coating held up good. They dulled slightly in some areas, but overall I was very happy. Calvo shield and everything else was wrapped with lava mat. No issues, but I wasn't running rear O2's either.