On the last set of headers I bought, I took a lot of time and carefully painted them with high temp. paint. And they rusted anyway.

This time, I'm considering ceramic coated headers. Does the finish last and are they worth the money?

Yes they are worth it.

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70 SS 454 CI Dynoed 684 HP, 702 TQ All Aluminium Fuel Injected Small Block , plus 200 - 500 HP NX nitrous system.

Ditto - love my ceramic coated Hedman headers. If you have the $, ceramic is the way to fly.

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'Silver Bullet' 1977 Z-28 413" SB
11.73 @ 115.10 on drag radials
Old Vortec combo:
12.15 @ 110.52

Does anyone have the ceramic PATRIOT "CLIPSTER" headers? How do they fit with the small block?

Absolutely! Put a set of Hooker supercomp Ceramics on my 69 Convertible...Not only do they look great....They stay that way!!

Yes they are worth it. Even if its the $200 dynomax headers. Uncoated headers will look like crap, and you will have higher underhood temps and fight against burned wires. In addition you dont have to worry about starter/solenoid heat soak.
With some coated headers you can work around the exhaust much sooner than without them. The only other coating that I have seen that works ok is using aluminum anti seize on unpainted headers.

Definitely worth the extra $$$. You can get a decent set of ceramic coated headers for under $200. I noticed a huge difference in the underhood temp. Its amazing that you can put your hand on the headers 15 min after shutting down the motor.

I paid Jet-Hot $160 to coat my new Hedman shorty headers, and after 2 summers, probalby about 2500 miles, they look like crap and are beginning to show rusty dots all over. I hope others have better luck.

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A buddy bought some for his '76 Sting Ray. They were the Hooker Super Comp w/ ceramic coating. 4 years later they look like hell. The coating is flaking off and rust has HEAVILY set in. He paid damn near $500 for this CRAP. I'd say it's not worth MY money. I also think it has to do with how much you're gonna drive it. He would go 3-4 weeks without touching it. I personally perfer painting them with VHT header paint and bake it on there. I can usually get 2 years of nice looking headers before I take them off and fog em down again.

[This message has been edited by GoldenOne7710 (edited January 16, 2005).]