Opinions on stainless steel headers
 

I’m getting ready to purchase a set of headers for my 65 GTO. I see that Doug’s now makes stainless steel headers. Has anyone bought stainless steel headers and how do you like them? I heard that they can change color and that they increase under hood temps. On the other hand, they will not rust and there is no coating that will get scratched or burn off. What are your thoughts ?

Stainless are nice, they do get a blueish color from heat but looks kinda cool, they also transfer that heat just like bare steel but no rust.

A friend of mine building a 73 pro tour type bird just bought the dougs SS D-port but he had them ceramic coated locally... not sure why he used SS for that since the pre coated ones are less money than he will have into these, but they are nice.

If youre buying new, I would spend the little extra to get the coated steel, I have some used coated dougs I just bought, they have a few years of use and some light scratches from install/removal, but they are rust free and the coating seems to be unaffected by the scratches. Also have a set of hookers that I had coated locally... they have been in use for 13 years with lots of drag & street use, even dyno time, the coating is still perfect with no signs of rust, they were coated inside & out. Good ceramic coatings should last a very long time without rusting or burning off.

I'm glad to hear this, I just ordered a set of Doug's round port headers ceramic coated for my 66 lemans. Took a lot of wrestling in my head between those and stainless.

Fwiw JEGS has a sale $120 a $999 or higher order right now with free shipping. That's what convinced me to order them now.

Stainless headers hold the heat in better than mild steel so they heat the floor pans less they are good for turbo use because of this also creates more force against the turbine wheel because it doesn't lose heat energy.

This is more pronounced the further back the turbo is in the system

I will say that I have a set of round port coated Doug’s headers in my 69 Firebird. After 12 years they still look good. The fit is very nice with clearance all around. I can even fit a large oil filter with no problem. Right now the car has manual steering and planning to switch to power in the future. Being the power box is larger, I hope there’ll still be clearance. Headers in a 65 GTO I’m told can be a tighter fit. My thought is if I have to slightly dent a tube or two to make clearance I would rather dent the stainless. Denting the coated headers could chip the coating and create a rust spot to begin. Also noticed the stainless headers are actually cheaper.

Correct. Stainless heat transfer coefficient is way less than mild. Like 1/3 to 1/4 as much so it keeps heat in the exhaust better. I would absolutely opt for stainless over mild steel. I have had to redo my ceramic coating over the years as well and don't want to deal with that.

My used coated dougs also have a pretty big dent put in them on the back side of the pass side top tube, I assume it was for dip stick clearance, about 1/2" diameter & 3/16-1/4" deep... coating is still intact & zero rust. I think the type/quality of coating matters, scratches & dents dont really seem to affect dougs and my locally coated hookers are the same, some scratches from & small dents from install & even a small area that scraped on the ground once, must not have went all the way through the coating.

SS may have better heat transfer than uncoated steel... but not as good as ceramic coated steel. I remember years ago when jet hot had major issues, friend had a set of new jet hot coated headers that sat in a garage & inside his house never used on a car, started to rust pretty bad after about 5-6 years, have seen some coatings literally flake off too, hopefully most of that is gone & new coatings will last a long time.

Certain SS alloys will still rust. The JBAs I used on my 97 Chevy truck did. If I had known would have gone coated. The generic Chinese copies use a different alloy but had a weird port opening.

When I do stainless, stainless works is the only place I deal with.
Excellent quality and top notch. But you'll pay for them.

Coated mild steel headers can rust from the inside out, SS may slow that process.

Personally, I consider headers disposable since my stuff if lowered. So I really don't have to worry about them rusting out. (painful reality)

There are treatments/cleaners that slow bluing on stainless, motorcycle guys use it with success, but it's a 'maintenance' item.

Another thing to keep in mind regarding SS, there are a number of different grades, and depending on what you want (or if you care) you should know what you're buying. When you see SS headers that are considerably more in cost, it could be due to a better grade, and visa-versa.

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After 16 years finally getting back on track.
20 yrs ago was anal front end weight even cut off all excess bolt theads.
Have 2 sets 20 yr old Doug's good shape but stainless half weight.
Anyone have 3 yrs or more of street strip hard usage.
Durability issues?