i was wondering what the pros and cons are of not having ceramic coated headers? are the thorleys decent headers for 443$ for uncoated headers?
Thanks
Sean

 

I really like mine and no problems with the plain chrome.

 

Any ideas what kind of gains you got. did they give you more low end torque, better throttle response?

Sean

 

[QUOTE=quik00]Any ideas what kind of gains you got. did they give you more low end torque, better throttle response?

While I have not dyno'ed the motor, I do know it has more low end torque--especiall about 2200RPM. Before, I would tow my enclosed car trailer (loaded to over 7500#) at 77 mph to keep it in OD on the Xway. Now I can cruise at 74 without it constantly downshifting.

 

ceramic coating inside and out will keep the heat in header assisting in exhaust scavenging and lowering underhood temps which makes it easier to keep your intake charge cooler, keeping the plastic and rubber stuff from falling apart so fast. it also keeps your headers from looking like rusty pieces of crap. mine are a year old and still look new, no rust or discoloration and my truck is supercharged so i know it's blowing some serious heat through them. can't say if the chrome holds up in the long run, but i everything i've read says they do nothing to lower underhood temp. if you can swing the extra $ and plan on keeping your truck awhile, i think you'll be happier with the coated headers. e

 

Talked to the folks at Thorley and did some other research before I made the purchase and the chrome plating is a thermal barrier itself. I think it is called thermal resistance. Ceramic and chrome both have a measured value of it. There are many types of chrome and ceramic with different values of thermal resistance I am sure, and I believe they use a pretyy good chrome. People talk about coated and uncoated headers, well chrome headers and ceramic headers are both coated. While not as efficient as ceramic, it gets the job done. The chrome will discolor, turn blue, black, and gold eventually , but I kinda like it, and I had no rust problems on the gibson's I had after 2.5 years. The Thorley's have been on for 3-4 months now and still look new. I had chrome Gibson's before the Thorley's and I feel there was just as much gain SOP from Thorley to Gibson as stock to Gibson. If i had to do it all over again I would like to see the difference from bone stock to Thorley. The may not give the best gains out there but in my opinion they are pretty good for the money. I don't see that a person would go wrong buying chrome or ceramic either way, just how much you wanna spend. My $.02