Stainless or Ceramic?

Alright, Im trying to decide whether to go with stainless steel headers or get ceramic. Im going with Fbody headers on my LS swap. I just cant make up my mind. Its about 120$ difference, stainless being more expensive. Obviously stainless will outlast me, you, and whoever. The ceramic run a little cooler. I always see that extra bit of cash as another part..o2 sensors, gaskets, etc etc. I had ceramic coated hookers on my 98trans am and they made great power. Had a little rust around the collectors after about a year or so. I dont know, ha, its not life or death, just thought I would run the question by you guys.

Stainless, hands down. Who makes stainless f body headers apart from SLP??

Hooker actually makes a stainless header. Same design as their proven ceramic 1 3/4" with 3" collector header. There are several vendors that sell quality stainless fbody headers High to low price:
ARH-American Racing Headers 1k+
Kooks- 900ish
QTP-800ish
LPP-600ish
Hooker-520 or so
and then a lot of ebay stainless for super cheap. I lauged but some guys stand by their ebay headers.

you know if you were a real baller, you'd get ceramic coated stainless steel.:harhar:

:amused: You called me on it! That would be the ultimate combo. While I was doing a search I ran across A guy who did that. Thats definitely overkill, but It would be sweet.

Im just hoping the fbody headers will fit. From what Iv read on Digital corvettes and corvette forums they should work http://www.digitalcorvettes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64831&highlight=fbody+headers.
Im running the same adapters and mounts superpowers is running in the link. The headers fitting the frame should be a go. My problem will be with the c5 batwing oil pan. Im just gonna order them and if they dont work Ill modify the oil pan. Im not making my own and I really didnt want to get a set of shortys. Although I did run across a set of these http://www.sandersonheaders.com/prod...roducts_id=173

Ultimate combo ? Stainless Hooker sidepipes, (Ebay replicas are cheap enough to cut them up) , cut the header flange off those and cut the flange off your stock (stainless) F-body manifolds... now weld the F-body flange to the Hooker replicas and drill a hole for the O2 bung on the inside of the collector (unless you run a carb).... this has successfully been done and I'm sure the LS1/sidepipe combo is rather rare....

Got any links to the sidepipe cut and paste? I bought ls1 flanges for my sbc super comps..I cut one side up but it was almost pointless..I could have rebuilt the headers and put the ls1 flanges on but it would have been way too much trouble.. I would have rather started from scratch..I guess if I spend 520 bucks Ill have to make them work :thumbs:

I found out how "simple" it is after I decided on a 383 gen1 SB ... I should have done the LS1 conversion back in 2006.... oh well....

Don't remember who it was but I received a few PMs back then from guys who cut their flanges and made this work.

Honestly, now looking back..... bolt the flange to the head, align the header and weld the primaries to the flange.... not really all that dramatic..... back then I was afraid to cut up my brand new ss Hookers..... oh well...

Went ahead and bought the stainless hooker 1-3/4" w/3" collector. I figure I havent slacked at any point of my build. Why slack now? Ill let you guys know if they fit!

I've always been curious about the insulating ability of the ceramic coatings. I had my mild steel headers coated (inside and out) years ago, mainly to keep them looking good. It's easy enough to do the thermal impedance comparisons for the steel/stainless pipes, but I've never seen any reliable data concerning the impedance and thickness of the ceramic coatings. Anyone familiar with the coating details?

Per the jet hot info packet the insulating ability of their coating is quite significant over non coating. Here is a link to a CarCraft article I ran across http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles/high_tech_ceramic_coatings/index.html

For future reference, Hooker fbody headers(2469-2HKR) WILL FIT the batwing c5 oil pan!!!! I man'd up and got a set of the stainless steel headers. They are friggin great! Im gonna have the egr etc. removed and tig welded back up. If anyone in the future is doing a search and comes across this, I will be glad to shoot you any measurements or pics.