Anyone using Hooker ceramic coated headers?

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littlestroke

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Anyone using the Hooker ceramic coated headers? I'm trying to get a set and I wanted to know if their coating,is done on the inside and outside. Does it peel after sometime? I can get them done locally by a pretty good guy for the same money, but if I could buy them ready to go that's fine also. Thanks for the help in advance. These are the 1 3/4 smallblock headers
 
I have them on my Swinger, and I'm not really impressed with them.They are coated inside, and out, flanges are nice, and they sealed up great. The coating will show some surface corrosion once in a while, but it cleans off easily.
The TTI's look much nicer, as they are more symetrical. One of my Hookers hangs low(which looks cool), but the other tucks up neatly. Also, I used stainless bolts, just make sure you use "neverseize".
 
I dont think its worth spending the money for ceramic coated hookers or headmans...only tti or dougs would be the one to ceramic coat...and fyi, the headmans on my 68 cuda with a 318, suck and dont seal worth a crap...cut the flanges on the header so each individual tube will seal against the head...
 
I bought the Hooker Comp "Darkside" coated headers.

The coating you get from them is not the same as the coating you'd get if you sent a set of uncoated headers off to Jet-Hot or the like. Mine were only coated on the outside (though there is "overspray" in the ports to make it appear coated on the inside), and the coating comes off pretty easily (and there's lots of stuff installing headers on an A-body that is going to make the coating come off).

Do NOT use the gaskets that come with the headers. They are crap. I have used Fel-Pros, but switched the Edelbrocks and don't see any reason to go back. I also bought a set of ARP 3/8 head bolts, which is a big time/knuckle saver.

I think coating is highly worthwhile as it has a measurable effect on engine compartment temperatures, which have a measurable effect on horsepower. That said, if I had it to do over again, I would have bought the headers, tweaked them to fit, and then sent them out for a "real" inside and out guaranteed coating job.

Steve
 
be carefull a lot of that stuff says made in USA........but...... the tubes are bent in the USA the welds are done in Mexico.I just spoke with a guy that has close to 40 years building performance stuff he recomends TTI or Headman Hustlers.
 
Hooker coated headers are junk they could not give me a set of coated headers.I bought a set put them on in oct. drove it mybe 150 miles put car in an inclosed traler for winter took it out in march and looked werst than the old ones.called hooker and they told me that the ceramic coat was not for rust prevention.that was not a good phone call.....:angry7:
 
littlestroke said:
Anyone using the Hooker ceramic coated headers? I'm trying to get a set and I wanted to know if their coating,is done on the inside and outside. Does it peel after sometime? I can get them done locally by a pretty good guy for the same money, but if I could buy them ready to go that's fine also. Thanks for the help in advance. These are the 1 3/4 smallblock headers
Click to expand...

I HAD a set (enough said)

Got TTI's now, fit much better, more ground clearance, easier to get to plugs, don't burn the plug wires for 5 & 7

with BB torsion bars (have 340), new gas shocks and about stock ride height on one of the 1st trips out hit a dip in the road and heard the hookers scrape the ground.
 
I've had my Hookers on the car for better than a year now. The car sat last winter in a storage space, hauled it through the rain and raced it all year this year. There's no rust on my headers except in the places where I scratched the coating off installing them.

I'm very pleased with the power. I did have to go through some hassles to get my TTi X-pipe to fit because the collector on the header was rotated differently than TTi is set up for (Hooker's fault, not TTis).

However, that was a small price to pay for the cash savings, and the fact that the TTis have horrific bends in the tubing at the cylinder head flange. On the set I had, a couple of the tubes necked down to about 1" diameter, right off of the cylinder head, which is the worst place for it.

I'm convinced that the TTis do a better job with ground clearance, but I'm also positive that the Hooker's make more power.

Again, if I had it to do over, I'd buy plain headers and send them out to be coated instead of buying precoated. BUT, the precoated darksides are holding up very well so far.

Steve
 
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