Im about to get some tuned length extractors made up for my EZ30R conversion (http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1358167&page=2) iv done and im trying to decide wheather i go stainless steel or mild steel.

For me in NZ the price of stainless is getting quite pricy and i dont know whether the almost twice the price of MS for stainless is worth it. I could just gett them made out of mildsteel and heat wrap them. What is the better option?
What benefits do you get from stainless performance wise besides the slight decrease in weight and the anti corrosion properties of it?

Well, in the interest of only doing things once I would recommend stainless. Especially with the EGT's that Turbo engines run oxidation can become a real issue on mild steel headers.

Stainless, if you heat wrap the mild steel you will need to coat it very well, as the moisture will get in and totally destroy everything even faster, so look into how much difference there will be between using mild steel and then ceramic coating it, and the stainless. I would think that stainless will pull away as the winner.

I voted for mild steel....only because it's much cheaper to find the "tuned" length required for your needs, as it rarely happens on the first go. Doing it once is just guessing, and just "custom". I have a "custom" long tube header fabbed out of full stainless. I should've gone with mild steel until I worked out the bugs.

Jay Storm

I voted for mild steel....only because it's much cheaper to find the "tuned" length required for your needs, as it rarely happens on the first go. Doing it once is just guessing, and just "custom". I have a "custom" long tube header fabbed out of full stainless. I should've gone with mild steel until I worked out the bugs.

Jay Storm

Yea thats what im thinking, im guessing its going to take atleast 3 goes to get it good first.
And when it comes to wrapping it i am aware that it is going to cause crevice corrosion if i dont put an extreamly corrosion resistant coating on to it.

Do you get any power gains from using stainless or is it just bling factor.

work up the test manifold in mild always because of cost and you won't get the tuning spot on-on the first try...if you do, you can always have them coated as they are...or remake in stainless when the money is available.

work up the test manifold in mild always because of cost and you won't get the tuning spot on-on the first try...if you do, you can always have them coated as they are...or remake in stainless when the money is available.

I think that is the plan now, i sounds like a good one too. I dont feel like doing things the expensive way!!

I used stainless more for strength to weight. I also live an an area where they actually help cars rust by spraying the roads with Brine to control ice....in addition to the already bad salt spreading. They're still looking pretty good despite the rest of the car......

Couple pics of my header. A loose cross between an MRT and a TechWorks longtube H.O. header. You can see my mistakes, reworking and other various flaws. They still work great though.
http://thumb19.webshots.net/t/30/466/0/12/73/2233012730094569859rMERMY_th.jpg (http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2233012730094569859rMERMY)
http://thumb19.webshots.net/t/50/550/8/9/90/2793809900094569859MagPjJ_th.jpg (http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2793809900094569859MagPjJ)

Jay Storm