which is batter the Ceramic or Stainless headers?

 

ceramics have higher corrosion rate in high salt areas.

 

Remember that ceramic headers are simply mild steel coated with ceramic. Mild steel, like Z Boy said above, is not as strong or corrosion/rust resitant as stainless. The ceramic coating helps on the outside, but there is no coating on the inside so you often get problems there.

On the other hand, the ceramic coating does help reduce engine bay heat from the headers.

The best bet is to get stainless headers, then have them coated, inside and out, by a company like Jet Hot. It's an expensive route to take (stainless headers plus 3rd party coating), but it's by far the best and longest lasting option. (Jet Hot coating on 350Z headers runs about $200 or so.)

 

thats not necessarily true - it all depends on the grade of stainless and the grade of mild steel that are used. I ahve midl steel systems built that lasted longer than stainless ones I have bought before.

I know on the DC headers we have sold in the past for a variety of cars, I have never had a single one come back for a rust issue. Over time the coating can come off, but often that is a longer amount of time than many of us keep our cars.

So the question that you need to ask yourself is:

1. how long will you keep the car
2. how much are you willing to invest in this mod (remembering that the install is no easy feat on any header).

My suggestion is that if you plan to keep the car more than 4 years, get the stainless. As for the coating, I personally don't feel its a worthwhile use of $200.00 on an NA car, but YMMV

Adam