How to clean ceramic headers – Answered

[caverman]

A couple days ago I had a set of ceramic coated headers and a tune installed on my car. When I picked it up I noticed that right on the curve of the tubes it had a dull burnt look to the coating. If you touched it, it felt like rough sand paper and wouldn’t scratch off.

I ended up calling the coating shop to see what they recommended and they suggested Mother’s Aluminum Polish.

So I go get some Mother’s and applied a coat using an old sock and then rubbed it clean with a micro-fiber cloth. I had to do about 3 – 4 applications per tube using a lot of polish on the first 1 or 2 applications.

This took 90% of that burnt look off and it looked 100x better. Still you could see an outline of where it was burnt versus where it wasn’t. It wasn’t all that bad and probably a majority of people would’ve never noticed. However, it drew my eyes to it every time.

I ended up searching a little on the internet and found a suggestion to use some steel wool. So…I gave that a try. Initially it looks like it dulls up the header a bit but when you then come back and polish it with the Mother’s it shines up perfect. Now you can’t see any of the outline at all and they look brand new.

So…here would be my suggestion:
If you header is just a little dull then just use some Mother’s Aluminum Polish.

If you have any lines or light scratching then use some steel wool first and then polish afterwards.

Here are some pics of the before and after.

[N3TKE]

Had the same thing happen.I used a wet rag and it came off with some elbow grease

[Hicompression]

Was it a residue left on there from the install? Will it come back?

[caverman]

Originally Posted by Hicompression

How quickly will that come back? That's a high heat area.

My guess is it won't come back. I don't know this for sure but I'm guessing that during the initial dyno the A/F was a little on the lean side which caused it to be hotter than normal. Since then the A/F has been adjusted to the correct amount and it won't get as hot again.

I'll be keeping my eye on it and if it looks like it starts to turn at all I can reach down and put a little polish on it. It's pretty easy to do.

[Hicompression]

Originally Posted by caverman

My guess is it won't come back. I don't know this for sure but I'm guessing that during the initial dyno the A/F was a little on the lean side which caused it to be hotter than normal. Since then the A/F has been adjusted to the correct amount and it won't get as hot again.

I'll be keeping my eye on it and if it looks like it starts to turn at all I can reach down and put a little polish on it. It's pretty easy to do.

Well...you did a good job buffing it out. It would have bothered the piss out of me too.

[bmbbl be]

who coated those..........that shouldnt happen ....i have had coated pipes on motorcylces that get real hot and they dont change color like that

[SlingShot]

FYI ... Also for the do it yourselfers ... Remember to wipe down your headers after install before you start the car. Most times your hand and finger prints can get burned into the coating ...

[MarylandSpeed]

First off, lets discuss how the coating works. It is ceramic powder (think pottery almost) baked on your header. With the silver header like the OP has, what they do is they mix silver and aluminum powder in the ceramic coating, and then they run it through a polisher. Alot like polishing a wheel. A lot of time, what sets the heat limit of the coating is not the coating itself, but the stuff they mix in to make it look pretty. 1700 extreme sterling, which I believe these headers are, will discolor at 1700 degrees, but the actuall coating will not peel or come off untill almost 2000. To look like that, the car had to be run rather lean..and I am guessing the headers also were not given a chance to cure.

In this case, whenever you see discoloration on the primary bends off the flange like that, it is instantly a read flag the car was run very lean..likely on a dyno. The dyno is the hottest the car will every be due to the car running full blast, and not going anywhere. What happened is probally a very small layer of the silver/aluminum finish was burned off. The finish was able to be restored by simply polishing the header..so it is no biggie.

How can you prevent this from happening? One cause of this is installing a header, and immeditaly rolling it on the dyno. The header coating is only baked on at like 500 degrees. Because of this, the first time you start the car and run it with headers, they are doing their final curing (normal EGT's are 700-1200 degrees). Normally after installing the header, you should either take the car for an easy 20 minute drive at highway speeds, or let it sit at idle with fans blowing on the car. If you roll it on the dyno right after install, and the coating is not fully cured, then you run the risk of what is pictured happening. Basically the car is running as hot as it ever will full blast on the dyno, and without the coating being cured, it is discolored. Odds are to that the first dyno run will be on the lean side. If you have ever seen a car run lean on the dyno, they glow orange in the same place the coating is discolored.

One last note, in the headers pictured here, the coating did not fail...it is just discolored. The coating itself is still sealed, and can corrosion, and reduce heat. It's just the stuff they mixed in the coating to make it look pretty that has been discolored.

[caverman]

Originally Posted by MarylandSpeed

First off, lets discuss how the coating works. It is ceramic powder (think pottery almost) baked on your header. With the silver header like the OP has, what they do is they mix silver and aluminum powder in the ceramic coating, and then they run it through a polisher. Alot like polishing a wheel. A lot of time, what sets the heat limit of the coating is not the coating itself, but the stuff they mix in to make it look pretty. 1700 extreme sterling, which I believe these headers are, will discolor at 1700 degrees, but the actuall coating will not peel or come off untill almost 2000. To look like that, the car had to be run rather lean..and I am guessing the headers also were not given a chance to cure.

In this case, whenever you see discoloration on the primary bends off the flange like that, it is instantly a read flag the car was run very lean..likely on a dyno. The dyno is the hottest the car will every be due to the car running full blast, and not going anywhere. What happened is probally a very small layer of the silver/aluminum finish was burned off. The finish was able to be restored by simply polishing the header..so it is no biggie.

How can you prevent this from happening? One cause of this is installing a header, and immeditaly rolling it on the dyno. The header coating is only baked on at like 500 degrees. Because of this, the first time you start the car and run it with headers, they are doing their final curing (normal EGT's are 700-1200 degrees). Normally after installing the header, you should either take the car for an easy 20 minute drive at highway speeds, or let it sit at idle with fans blowing on the car. If you roll it on the dyno right after install, and the coating is not fully cured, then you run the risk of what is pictured happening. Basically the car is running as hot as it ever will full blast on the dyno, and without the coating being cured, it is discolored. Odds are to that the first dyno run will be on the lean side. If you have ever seen a car run lean on the dyno, they glow orange in the same place the coating is discolored.

One last note, in the headers pictured here, the coating did not fail...it is just discolored. The coating itself is still sealed, and can corrosion, and reduce heat. It's just the stuff they mixed in the coating to make it look pretty that has been discolored.

Thanks for the info.

[SC2150]

Excellent thread!!

[Avalnch]

Ahh, mystery solved! Thanks you guys, I love this site. Can I use "Never Dull" to remove the burnt off layer?

[caverman]

Originally Posted by Avalnch

Ahh, mystery solved! Thanks you guys, I love this site. Can I use "Never Dull" to remove the burnt off layer?

I think any Aluminum Polish would work so "Never Dull" should be good. I would just make sure to use a micro-fiber type cloth for the final buff to give it a real nice shine. At least that's what worked for me.

[ADM PERFORMANCE]

Originally Posted by MarylandSpeed

First off, lets discuss how the coating works. It is ceramic powder (think pottery almost) baked on your header. With the silver header like the OP has, what they do is they mix silver and aluminum powder in the ceramic coating, and then they run it through a polisher. Alot like polishing a wheel. A lot of time, what sets the heat limit of the coating is not the coating itself, but the stuff they mix in to make it look pretty. 1700 extreme sterling, which I believe these headers are, will discolor at 1700 degrees, but the actuall coating will not peel or come off untill almost 2000. To look like that, the car had to be run rather lean..and I am guessing the headers also were not given a chance to cure.

In this case, whenever you see discoloration on the primary bends off the flange like that, it is instantly a read flag the car was run very lean..likely on a dyno. The dyno is the hottest the car will every be due to the car running full blast, and not going anywhere. What happened is probally a very small layer of the silver/aluminum finish was burned off. The finish was able to be restored by simply polishing the header..so it is no biggie.

How can you prevent this from happening? One cause of this is installing a header, and immeditaly rolling it on the dyno. The header coating is only baked on at like 500 degrees. Because of this, the first time you start the car and run it with headers, they are doing their final curing (normal EGT's are 700-1200 degrees). Normally after installing the header, you should either take the car for an easy 20 minute drive at highway speeds, or let it sit at idle with fans blowing on the car. If you roll it on the dyno right after install, and the coating is not fully cured, then you run the risk of what is pictured happening. Basically the car is running as hot as it ever will full blast on the dyno, and without the coating being cured, it is discolored. Odds are to that the first dyno run will be on the lean side. If you have ever seen a car run lean on the dyno, they glow orange in the same place the coating is discolored.

One last note, in the headers pictured here, the coating did not fail...it is just discolored. The coating itself is still sealed, and can corrosion, and reduce heat. It's just the stuff they mixed in the coating to make it look pretty that has been discolored.

Took the words right out of my mouth>

The car was put on the dyno,not lean though.The headers are baked(around 450-650 degrees depending on the company,I am sure they told you what the exact numbers were when you called them).The company at reference that does all of our headers does fantastic work...never any issues.Cavermans car has optimum air fuel(based on were we locate the Dyno sensor) on our dyno.

This is a great post for thosenot aware on how to clean coated headers...Good job!

[caverman]

Originally Posted by ADM PERFORMANCE

This is a great post for thosenot aware on how to clean coated headers...Good job!

Yes...the intent of the thread is to give others (like myself up until now) some info on how to polish up your ceramic coated headers. I figured there will be others that will have the same questions I had and when I searched the forum there was no info posted.

The coating company actually told me not to use the steel wool but when I couldn't get that last little bit to come out with just the polish I figured I would give it a try. I started with a small area on a more hidden tube and it worked great....especially polishing after using the steel wool.

Going based on what Brandon posted my guess is that I took off the rest of that top layer with the steel wool and the polish blended it all back in. Similar to wet sanding and buffing a car.

They look fantastic now....I couldn't be happier with everything that was done!

I've always been a fan of the ceramic coating and have been in on serveral threads about paying the extra money for coating your headers. I am now 110% sure I made the right choice.

Thanks for everyones input.