[travislambert]

I've been running the CSP headers since the beginning of the year. Overall, I'm happy with them, but they aren't perfect.

As others have noted, the bolts included are the wrong type of bolt. You need heat-treated bolts designed for exhaust if you want to have any chance of removing them later. Since every other nut & bolt on the entire car is metric... it'd be even better if they'd stick with metric bolts too.

The headers run too close to the steering shaft without any heat shield. If you run your car hard at the track, you will melt the plastic cover on the steering shaft. Mine melted off completely. Without this cover, the grease will disappear making it very difficult to remove if you ever need to drop the engine. I've since replaced my steering shaft and wrapped it with a heat-protective sleeve to keep the plastic cover from melting.

Similarly, on the opposite side, you'll find a wire harness that runs below the coolant reservoir. These headers will cook that harness. The plastic zip ties that hold the harness in place melted then the harness moved even closer to the headers. Luckily I caught this before any real damage was done. I wrapped the harness in heat-protective tape, secured it with new zip ties, then covered those zip ties in more heat protective tape.

Also, this isn't CSP's fault, but the jet hot coating I had them apply is peeling badly. Technically this is covered by the coating warranty, but it's a pretty big burden to actually take advantage of that warranty.

A few weeks after installing these, I wanted to swap the exhaust. I had cut and welded the connection pipes so I contacted CSP about buying another set of pipes to connect to the headers. They wouldn't sell just those pipes. They told me I needed to buy a whole new complete set of headers. While I understand them not wanting to break up a set, I feel like they could have probably helped me make arrangements with their supplier to get another set of the pipes I needed. It seemed they were not interested at all in actually helping.

Just my two cents. Again, overall I'm happy with them. Most of the problems listed above would be problems with any aftermarket header. The aftermarket just doesn't pay nearly as much attention to details as the OEMs do.

[Z OH 6]

Originally Posted by travislambert

I've been running the CSP headers since the beginning of the year. Overall, I'm happy with them, but they aren't perfect.

As others have noted, the bolts included are the wrong type of bolt. You need heat-treated bolts designed for exhaust if you want to have any chance of removing them later. Since every other nut & bolt on the entire car is metric... it'd be even better if they'd stick with metric bolts too.

The headers run too close to the steering shaft without any heat shield. If you run your car hard at the track, you will melt the plastic cover on the steering shaft. Mine melted off completely. Without this cover, the grease will disappear making it very difficult to remove if you ever need to drop the engine. I've since replaced my steering shaft and wrapped it with a heat-protective sleeve to keep the plastic cover from melting.

Similarly, on the opposite side, you'll find a wire harness that runs below the coolant reservoir. These headers will cook that harness. The plastic zip ties that hold the harness in place melted then the harness moved even closer to the headers. Luckily I caught this before any real damage was done. I wrapped the harness in heat-protective tape, secured it with new zip ties, then covered those zip ties in more heat protective tape.

Also, this isn't CSP's fault, but the jet hot coating I had them apply is peeling badly. Technically this is covered by the coating warranty, but it's a pretty big burden to actually take advantage of that warranty.

A few weeks after installing these, I wanted to swap the exhaust. I had cut and welded the connection pipes so I contacted CSP about buying another set of pipes to connect to the headers. They wouldn't sell just those pipes. They told me I needed to buy a whole new complete set of headers. While I understand them not wanting to break up a set, I feel like they could have probably helped me make arrangements with their supplier to get another set of the pipes I needed. It seemed they were not interested at all in actually helping.

Just my two cents. Again, overall I'm happy with them. Most of the problems listed above would be problems with any aftermarket header. The aftermarket just doesn't pay nearly as much attention to details as the OEMs do.

I've had none of these issues with my Jet-Hot coated Kooks 2" headers.

[CW3SF]

Originally Posted by travislambert

I've been running the CSP headers since the beginning of the year. Overall, I'm happy with them, but they aren't perfect.

As others have noted, the bolts included are the wrong type of bolt. You need heat-treated bolts designed for exhaust if you want to have any chance of removing them later. Since every other nut & bolt on the entire car is metric... it'd be even better if they'd stick with metric bolts too.

The headers run too close to the steering shaft without any heat shield. If you run your car hard at the track, you will melt the plastic cover on the steering shaft. Mine melted off completely. Without this cover, the grease will disappear making it very difficult to remove if you ever need to drop the engine. I've since replaced my steering shaft and wrapped it with a heat-protective sleeve to keep the plastic cover from melting.

Similarly, on the opposite side, you'll find a wire harness that runs below the coolant reservoir. These headers will cook that harness. The plastic zip ties that hold the harness in place melted then the harness moved even closer to the headers. Luckily I caught this before any real damage was done. I wrapped the harness in heat-protective tape, secured it with new zip ties, then covered those zip ties in more heat protective tape.

Also, this isn't CSP's fault, but the jet hot coating I had them apply is peeling badly. Technically this is covered by the coating warranty, but it's a pretty big burden to actually take advantage of that warranty.

A few weeks after installing these, I wanted to swap the exhaust. I had cut and welded the connection pipes so I contacted CSP about buying another set of pipes to connect to the headers. They wouldn't sell just those pipes. They told me I needed to buy a whole new complete set of headers. While I understand them not wanting to break up a set, I feel like they could have probably helped me make arrangements with their supplier to get another set of the pipes I needed. It seemed they were not interested at all in actually helping.

Just my two cents. Again, overall I'm happy with them. Most of the problems listed above would be problems with any aftermarket header. The aftermarket just doesn't pay nearly as much attention to details as the OEMs do.

Wow that’s crazy. I’ve had zero issues with my ARH headers.

[travislambert]

It all depends on how hard you run the car. Running the car hard on a road course will push the temperatures beyond anything you can ever reach on the street or drag strip. There's also a big difference in participating in a track day and pushing the car to its limit at a track day. This is where differences in design quality and design deficiencies are most likely to surface. OEMs conduct this type of testing with pro drivers who can push the cars. Most aftermarket companies do not have the drivers or the resources for this type of validation.

I've never seen aftermarket headers that wouldn't get hot enough to damage nearby components when the car is pushed. That's a big reason why OEMs don't use that design. They use heavier designs with lots of heat shields. If they didn't they'd have many of warranty claims from guys who frequent the road courses.

[Z OH 6]

Originally Posted by travislambert

It all depends on how hard you run the car. Running the car hard on a road course will push the temperatures beyond anything you can ever reach on the street or drag strip. There's also a big difference in participating in a track day and pushing the car to its limit at a track day. This is where differences in design quality and design deficiencies are most likely to surface. OEMs conduct this type of testing with pro drivers who can push the cars. Most aftermarket companies do not have the drivers or the resources for this type of validation.

I've never seen aftermarket headers that wouldn't get hot enough to damage nearby components when the car is pushed. That's a big reason why OEMs don't use that design. They use heavier designs with lots of heat shields. If they didn't they'd have many of warranty claims from guys who frequent the road courses.

That's what the Jet-Hot coating is for. I went with the extreme 2500f coating. It works amazingly well.

[travislambert]

Originally Posted by Z OH 6

That's what the Jet-Hot coating is for. I went with the extreme 2500f coating. It works amazingly well.

My headers have a jet-hot coating and it still melted everything. I think mine is just the standard coating though. Not 100% sure the extreme coating would have been enough to save it. Possibly, I don't know.

Honestly, in my experience, many folks either don't run their cars hard or they're not looking closely enough at the car to notice problems. I think the potential is there to have the problem with just about any headers. That's a big reason why OEM designs look a lot different between the cats and the engine. Pipes with no heat shielding have to potential to cause a lot of damage. You can take a car with one driver and never have an issue. Take that same car and throw it on the road course with an experienced driver and they'll get things hot enough to melt anything near the headers.

Protecting the components with Design Engineering Cool Tape worked for me. For the steering shaft plastic, I used the Design Engineering 1-1/4" aluminized sleeve.

If I had it to do over, there's no question, I would get the extreme coating. I'd probably order the headers in bare stainless though. Then I'd fab up mounts on the headers to install heat shields in the known problem areas. After adding mounts for the heat shields, I'd send them out myself to be coated.

[Z OH 6]

Originally Posted by travislambert

My headers have a jet-hot coating and it still melted everything. I think mine is just the standard coating though. Not 100% sure the extreme coating would have been enough to save it. Possibly, I don't know.

Honestly, in my experience, many folks either don't run their cars hard or they're not looking closely enough at the car to notice problems. I think the potential is there to have the problem with just about any headers. That's a big reason why OEM designs look a lot different between the cats and the engine. Pipes with no heat shielding have to potential to cause a lot of damage. You can take a car with one driver and never have an issue. Take that same car and throw it on the road course with an experienced driver and they'll get things hot enough to melt anything near the headers.

Protecting the components with Design Engineering Cool Tape worked for me. For the steering shaft plastic, I used the Design Engineering 1-1/4" aluminized sleeve.

If I had it to do over, there's no question, I would get the extreme coating. I'd probably order the headers in bare stainless though. Then I'd fab up mounts on the headers to install heat shields in the known problem areas. After adding mounts for the heat shields, I'd send them out myself to be coated.

There's a difference in the extreme coating, that's why it costs more. Its very thick and durable and blocks more heat. My Kooks 2" with 2500f coating are much cooler than the stock exhaust manifolds.

[travislambert]

Originally Posted by Z OH 6

There's a difference in the extreme coating, that's why it costs more. Its very thick and durable and blocks more heat.

Yeah, for sure. I get that. As I mentioned, it may solve the problem. I don't know.

When I ordered from CSP's website though, they didn't have multiple coating options. It was uncoated or coated. It wasn't a cost-saving decision or anything. I thought the regular coating would be enough, but it wasn't in my case.

[travislambert]

Originally Posted by Z OH 6

There's a difference in the extreme coating, that's why it costs more. Its very thick and durable and blocks more heat. My Kooks 2" with 2500f coating are much cooler than the stock exhaust manifolds.

I don't see how you can beat an air gap and a heat shield with a coating. I'd be willing to wager a fair amount of money the surface temps of coated headers are still hotter than the heat shields around the OEM exhaust manifold. The coating you have might be great, but saying it'll run cooler than stock exhaust manifolds is a bold statement.

Within the specs they are designed for, OEM parts are pretty much impossible to beat. Their engineers are among the best in the world and they have resources available that aftermarket companies can only dream about.

(I know several of the GM engineers personally.)

[Z OH 6]

Originally Posted by travislambert

Yeah, for sure. I get that. As I mentioned, it may solve the problem. I don't know.

When I ordered from CSP's website though, they didn't have multiple coating options. It was uncoated or coated. It wasn't a cost-saving decision or anything. I thought the regular coating would be enough, but it wasn't in my case.

Understood and honest its not worth it at this point to remove the headers just to have them coated again. Sounds like what you're doing is the best way forward until you need to remove the headers for some other reason.

[FoundNemo]

Originally Posted by travislambert

I've been running the CSP headers since the beginning of the year. Overall, I'm happy with them, but they aren't perfect.

As others have noted, the bolts included are the wrong type of bolt. You need heat-treated bolts designed for exhaust if you want to have any chance of removing them later. Since every other nut & bolt on the entire car is metric... it'd be even better if they'd stick with metric bolts too.

The headers run too close to the steering shaft without any heat shield. If you run your car hard at the track, you will melt the plastic cover on the steering shaft. Mine melted off completely. Without this cover, the grease will disappear making it very difficult to remove if you ever need to drop the engine. I've since replaced my steering shaft and wrapped it with a heat-protective sleeve to keep the plastic cover from melting.

Similarly, on the opposite side, you'll find a wire harness that runs below the coolant reservoir. These headers will cook that harness. The plastic zip ties that hold the harness in place melted then the harness moved even closer to the headers. Luckily I caught this before any real damage was done. I wrapped the harness in heat-protective tape, secured it with new zip ties, then covered those zip ties in more heat protective tape.

Also, this isn't CSP's fault, but the jet hot coating I had them apply is peeling badly. Technically this is covered by the coating warranty, but it's a pretty big burden to actually take advantage of that warranty.

A few weeks after installing these, I wanted to swap the exhaust. I had cut and welded the connection pipes so I contacted CSP about buying another set of pipes to connect to the headers. They wouldn't sell just those pipes. They told me I needed to buy a whole new complete set of headers. While I understand them not wanting to break up a set, I feel like they could have probably helped me make arrangements with their supplier to get another set of the pipes I needed. It seemed they were not interested at all in actually helping.

Just my two cents. Again, overall I'm happy with them. Most of the problems listed above would be problems with any aftermarket header. The aftermarket just doesn't pay nearly as much attention to details as the OEMs do.

Thanks for the heads up on the issues you had. I will keep an eye out and I am going to proactively heat shield those items. Would you be able to list the specific sleeve part # from DEI that you used and give a picture of where you heat wrapped the wiring area?

I just ordered 30ft of 2" wide DEI cool tape for the moment.

[Z OH 6]

Originally Posted by travislambert

I don't see how you can beat an air gap and a heat shield with a coating. I'd be willing to wager a fair amount of money the surface temps of coated headers are still hotter than the heat shields around the OEM exhaust manifold. The coating you have might be great, but saying it'll run cooler than stock exhaust manifolds is a bold statement.

Within the specs they are designed for, OEM parts are pretty much impossible to beat. Their engineers are among the best in the world and they have resources available that aftermarket companies can only dream about.

(I know several of the GM engineers personally.)

You may say its a bold statement but I stand by it. Underhood temps are NOTICEABLY cooler with the 2500f coating compared to the stock manifolds.

[Spaceme1117]

I have had regular ceramic coated headers, Swaintech white lightning coated headers (supposed to be the best coating for heat), bare metal headers, and my C6 currently has lava-rock based wrapped headers. By far the best heat reduction and protection of the wiring and plastics under the hood have come from the lava-rock based wrap. I honestly could tell no difference between coated or bare headers.

And the lava-rock wraps do mot hold moisture like the older fiberglass based wrap.

Honestly, I think ceramic coating on headers are the equivalent of buying an extended warranty; it’s a way to tack on some extra profit on a deal but is usually useless.

Don’t get me wrong, ceramic coating can look really good and if it works for you then great.

Just my opinion and experience.

[travislambert]

Originally Posted by FoundNemo

Thanks for the heads up on the issues you had. I will keep an eye out and I am going to proactively heat shield those items. Would you be able to list the specific sleeve part # from DEI that you used and give a picture of where you heat wrapped the wiring area?

I just ordered 30ft of 2" wide DEI cool tape for the moment.

Sure thing.

Heads up, the 2" wide tape is very hard to work with. It's too stiff and wide and just doesn't wrap well. The 1.5" is way easier. Try both and you'll see what I mean. It doesn't sound like a big difference, but it's night and day.

Design Engineering 010408
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000E283S0

Design Engineering 010404
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000E28EFC

(I'll share pictures in a separate post.)