[arpad_m]

Originally Posted by Joshinator99

Agree 100%. I’ll never run headers that are not ceramic coated. Been 4 years here with coated headers and no starter issues. Granted, I never drive the car. But still.

If I'm brutally honest, I don't drive my car that much either, but my ceramic coated headers also work extremely well, no issues with heat whatsoever.

[Dynamical]

Originally Posted by Joshinator99

Agree 100%. I’ll never run headers that are not ceramic coated. Been 4 years here with coated headers and no starter issues. Granted, I never drive the car. But still.

So how the hell would you know then?

Seriously though, does the ceramic coating REALLY make that big of a difference? Did you have any issues with starters before? Like you know, when you USED to drive your car?

[Joshinator99]

Originally Posted by Dynamical

So how the hell would you know then?

Seriously though, does the ceramic coating REALLY make that big of a difference? Did you have any issues with starters before? Like you know, when you USED to drive your car?

FYI putting down 1059 WHP makes a fair amount of heat my friend…

If you take a close look around under the hood, there is a good amount of wiring, plastic, and rubber that are closer to the exhaust than I’d prefer. The ceramic coating has to have helped….worst case it helped my OCD.

[Dynamical]

Originally Posted by Joshinator99

FYI putting down 1059 WHP makes a fair amount of heat my friend…

If you take a close look around under the hood, there is a good amount of wiring, plastic, and rubber that are closer to the exhaust than I’d prefer. The ceramic coating has to have helped….worst case it helped my OCD.

No doubt!
I do know the issue exists. Or at least that's what people have posted. I will probably wrap my starter unless there's a downside that outweighs it.
I do know the OCD feeling and I have to keep that in check myself. That's why I made a pledge to myself I would not get into serious weight reduction on this car because THAT, is the one that will make me insane

[RideWithDanger]

Originally Posted by MyNameIs

I have a drop in K&N filter in the stock box.

I would strongly recommend an actual CAI, or even just using stock air filters over that. The ONLY benefit to the vast majority of those drop in air filters is that you can clean and reuse them. As far as performance goes, many don't do a thing, some even hurt, and some actually don't filter out everything they should be filtering out.

For such a small cheap part its best to do it right, I just hate how drop in air filters got really popular and everyone jumped in to make their own and none of them turned out very good in testing. I think Green Filters are the only ones worth even looking at, but even then I would just invest in a real CAI.

[Summit20171SS]

Originally Posted by L78toLT1

If you ceramic coat your headers, you shouldn't have any starter issues. I installed all of the mods in my signature around 25k miles ago. The only heat related issue I have experienced is one melted MSD plug wire. I have around 20 full-day track sessions with these mods

Originally Posted by Joshinator99

Agree 100%. I’ll never run headers that are not ceramic coated. Been 4 years here with coated headers and no starter issues. Granted, I never drive the car. But still.

Where do you get your headers ceramic coated?

[FlukeSS]

Originally Posted by Dynamical

So how the hell would you know then?

Seriously though, does the ceramic coating REALLY make that big of a difference? Did you have any issues with starters before? Like you know, when you USED to drive your car?

To answer your question yes.

coated headers, drop header temps down to maybe 200 degrees sometimes less.

My uncoated headers reach upwards of 900 degrees F

But the starter issue people are talking about are specific years, my car is not one of them.

[Joshinator99]

Originally Posted by Summit20171SS

Where do you get your headers ceramic coated?

I used a company in Southern New England, Central CT Coatings. Did a great job. I had my shop weld in an extra bung in the collector then drove it down to the coaters for coating before installation.

[Dynamical]

Originally Posted by FlukeSS

To answer your question yes.

coated headers, drop header temps down to maybe 200 degrees sometimes less.

My uncoated headers reach upwards of 900 degrees F

But the starter issue people are talking about are specific years, my car is not one of them.

Thanks. Sounds good to me.
I'm assuming the starter issues were before your year so mine should be good too. I'll find out

[FlukeSS]

Originally Posted by Dynamical

Thanks. Sounds good to me.
I'm assuming the starter issues were before your year so mine should be good too. I'll find out

Ya, the starter issue was because GM screwed up and used the wrong heat shielding for the starter housing, which ultimately melts the electrical wiring for them.

I don't recall exact year, but I want to say 2019-2020+ are safe, I thought there was a website we can look up our cars on to determine if we had to worry about it. TSB maybe?

[Capricio]

Originally Posted by Eric10905

Second this. ^^^

I might start a thread to ask who regrets doing headers. I regret them.
But, if you do them, take the extra time and $ and ceramic coat them. Esp if you ever plan to track.

Sincerely, I appreciate feedback like this. Its too easy to seek affirmation/validation on mods after expending all the money/effort/time. Knowing the marginal increase in performance and dealing with clearance, heat, and sealing issues, after reading what I've learned here, I'd probably stay away from headers. The OEM ones are actually not bad. It's hard to say how much of the gains from the headers are from improved flow vs just a good performance tune.

[Eric10905]

Originally Posted by Capricio

Sincerely, I appreciate feedback like this. Its too easy to seek affirmation/validation on mods after expending all the money/effort/time. Knowing the marginal increase in performance and dealing with clearance, heat, and sealing issues, after reading what I've learned here, I'd probably stay away from headers. The OEM ones are actually not bad. It's hard to say how much of the gains from the headers are from improved flow vs just a good performance tune.

No worries, we all have our own opinions, that's just mine.

For me, between cost of headers, hi flow cats, ceramic coating, install, then car being too loud for my taste (and sounds limits at a local track), adding a magnaflow X before the suitcase muffler, I'm sure I spent over $2 or 2.5K. In reflection, wish I had spent it somewhere else on the car. Other folks may not. I am probably being too particular about it.
Good luck on your choices!

[bdavies11]

Originally Posted by FlukeSS

Ya, the starter issue was because GM screwed up and used the wrong heat shielding for the starter housing, which ultimately melts the electrical wiring for them.

I don't recall exact year, but I want to say 2019-2020+ are safe, I thought there was a website we can look up our cars on to determine if we had to worry about it. TSB maybe?

I wouldn't say that was the issue. I think it's more of an electrical resistance issue than a "heatshield issue". I had the starter issue on hot days after use for about 3 years (only in summer of course) and I'm 100% stock. I also had the dealer install a heavy duty heat shield while I was still under warranty for my starter problems but that didn't do anything to help. What finally fixed it was adding an extra and beefy ground cable.. I think GM just didn't use a big enough gauge ground from the battery and with increased heat, comes increased electrical resistance and the ground they used from the factory just couldn't handle the job on hot days. I haven't have a starter issue in about 4 summers now.

[Spaceme1117]

Originally Posted by MyNameIs

My car is stock SS 6 spd except with ported Throttle Body. How much more HP and Tq can I expect with Long Tube headers going through my stock NPP exhaust? Its a 17' that I bought new, now with about 68k miles.

I have a 2017 2SS with the 8-speed auto. I did Kooks 1 7/8 inch headers and cats going into the stock NPP.

I can't seem to find my dyno graph but I do remember the average gain was about +25 HP and TQ.

But headers do much more than increase power and torque on these cars. After 5000 rpm, the stock manifolds power and torque drops off of a cliff.

The long tube headers don't drop off anywhere near as much. At 5000 rpms to redline, the stock exhaust rapidly power and tq start to drop and then fall off a lot. At 6500 RPM's with the headers, HP and TQ is about 50 to 60 more at the same RPM with the stock exhaust. And you can really feel it. The car feels like it is accelerating harder.

It is actually quite amazing the gains above 5000 rpm. Do it.