View Full Version : Hedman Ceramic coated headers
Judas
07-01-2011, 02:56 PM
Bought them about 3 years ago for my 69 GTO resto. They fit well, but...they are rusting in multiple places. Note that my car sits 100% of the time because it is in the middle of a frame-off resto. The engine has been fired about 10 times, NOT to do a break-in but just run it for a while.
I thought the whole idea of ceramic coating (and the much, much higher price) was to prevent rust? :(
Ccass
07-01-2011, 03:07 PM
Believe it or not, the 'occasional' engine firing could have accelerated the rust problem. Cars that are driven rarely have accelerated rust problems because the heat generated by the warmed up motor creates a lot of water vapor which turns to water and lays on the inside of the pipes until the next time you start it up. A car that gets run all the time is constantly burning off the water not allowing it to sit for extended periods. That being said, you must be in a very humid or salt air climate to have rust coming through on ceramic headers already or the ceramic process on your headers was done incorrectly.
i've had same probs w/ jet hot after 2 yrs
bryansMtngto
07-04-2011, 05:17 PM
Nicely said Cass. Was going to make the same argument.. I got ceramic coated headers for my car, coated black inside/silver out. been on the car has to be 10 years atleast Look fine.
bryansMtngto
07-04-2011, 07:59 PM
agree with cass. was going to make that point also...
garlanka
07-05-2011, 09:41 PM
I had the same issue with the the Hedman ceramic coated header. I bought a set for a 68 Firebird I had. Mine started pitting and rusting within the first year of installation. I was very disappointed. I paid more for these headers to prevent a discoloration and/or rusting issue, but the product did not deliver.
garlanka
07-07-2011, 12:46 AM
I had the same issue when I purchased the same headers.
Judas
07-07-2011, 09:41 AM
I live in South-Central PA, in a town called New Freedom. Baltimore is 30 minutes due south. We do get some humidity, but its not like on the coast. I've noticed the rust has a sort of pattern to it; most of it's on the front, center of the pipes at the engine flange, but it is also at the collectors and along any shape edge (on the flanges).
It's still a bummer to see this much rust on ceramic headers. I think decent painted headers would have been just as good at a fraction of the cost. I've done some web searches and there are others reporting the same thing on Hedman, but I don't know if these represent a typical margin for failure. Put another way, I did not do searches on other brands to see what people are saying.