[GH85Carrera]

In my upcoming engine swap for my beloved El Camino the one “while I am in there” project I plan do is replace the cast iron exhaust manifolds from the 305 with new shorty headers. Those old manifolds would strangle the new 350.

My question is about which headers should I get. On some of the other forums the opinion is that headers with a ceramic coating from the manufacturer is the lowest quality cheapest possible coating. The opinion is to buy quality headers that are uncoated and have a local company put on a good quality coating.

That seems counter intuitive to me. In my experience manufacturers can produce a better final product than a local company working with a product that was made by some other company. I have no experience with ceramic coating however so I am looking to the Pelican brain trust to shine the light of experience on the subject.

The engine is NOT going into a show car. It will continue to be my daily driver. The only reason I want ceramic headers to is make them last longer and look decent. I don’t want a rusty old cheap header that rots out in two years. I don’t want to spend 800 bucks on a stainless steel custom header either.

So bottom line question: Would you buys a set of headers with a factory ceramic coating or the uncoated headers and have a local shop coat them for you? Any other options?