Stainless Steel Headers... worth it or no?

[Bill Grubbs]

Approx $9000+/-

But they can be very brittle.

My Elston Stainless both sides together weighed less than one side of our old Heddman headers.

[gmonde]

I have been build headers for several years now ,steel and stainless , I always suggest the stainless ,, you don't have to coat them and no rust issues will offset how often you will have to coat steel and rust will build up in steel no matter the company who does them ,, also if your building new engines and dynoing them with coated ones you will burn the coating off the top bends , but ceramic coated headers do offer the heat being contained in side the tube ,, stainless doesn't offer any heat barrier , if your r&d ing with header sizes a lot then steel is the way to go gmonde


www.gmondeperformance.com

[Randall Klein]

I talked with Kromer a few years ago and he needed the car on premises...do others mentioned here (Lelchook, REF, Elston etc) have that same requirement?

Kromer also requested spec sheet on port design, flow, etc.....others?

Thanks in advance for any opinions

I run my 1995 Jack Davis headers, it sounds like I may be giving something up, they are looking kind of rough

[rallye bob]

gmonde... Your site link shows a virus. My AVG caught it...

[RonP]

I worked with Kromerkraft from about 1995 to roughly 2005. I'm guessing we built 1 set of stainless for every 80-100 sets of mild steel headers during that period. A good ceramic coating will last several years. I can't remember any customers complaining about rust during this period. We never recommended SS during that period of time. After the first set, we tried to talk the handfull of customers out of SS.

And yes, he likes having the car on site to fit the headers. They are custom fit.
We had a fixture for Gary Russell LT1 F-bodies in that time. Gary sents numerous customers to us.

We never had a customer do a back to back test,....so I don;t know if there is a perf. benefit.

Generally the Tri-Y's help the mid range and peak torque and lose a little max power.
(based my experience and it varies from car to car if there is a benefit).

Thanks, Ron

[340Cuda]

Originally Posted by Randall Klein

I talked with Kromer a few years ago and he needed the car on premises...do others mentioned here (Lelchook, REF, Elston etc) have that same requirement?

Kromer also requested spec sheet on port design, flow, etc.....others?

Thanks in advance for any opinions

I run my 1995 Jack Davis headers, it sounds like I may be giving something up, they are looking kind of rough

Randall at least for Mark Lelchook at Performance Welding he does have some cars he can use to build headers if the customers car is not there. I think his website may have more information. I don't think he will build headers out of anything but stainless anymore.
Bill

[Ed Carpenter]

When I inquired gmonde wanted the car. I have a Chevy II so not your everyday deal.

[gmonde]

yeah I do need the car to do the work , this way your header fits your car ,just .250 in engine position can create lots of interference issues ,,, I have to look in the web virus deal
gmonde

[Dick Butler]

Had a set built on one of my cars by a builder mentioned here. They built while working on jack stands. When we put the car on the ground only had 1/2 inch ground clearance. Wanted me to try them first and if needed they would redo them. I had them redo them rather than make another trip and they Made me pay to have them redone to work on the track... Last trip to that shop...
Be careful....

[FrankChastain]

No problems here on the virus......

Originally Posted by gmonde

yeah I do need the car to do the work , this way your header fits your car ,just .250 in engine position can create lots of interference issues ,,, I have to look in the web virus deal
gmonde