Just talked to Phil Huff, what a great guy. He says that the coating place they use sprays the headers and that they cannot get all the way inside the runners with the sprayer. The coating they use cannot be dipped. He said that he used to use the Jet Hot coating but had problems with the coating flaking off, Jet Hot dips them into the ceramic coating instead of spraying them. He said that the place he uses now does the best job that he has seen and that he has never had a problem with there coating coming off. The outside coating on my headers is very good; I was just worried about the outside.
He told me that he guarantees that the headers will not rust. If they do I just have to send them back and get another set or have them fixed.
The part about the coating being half ass, well that is because I don’t know much about ceramic coatings, it was my ignorance. I take that comment back.
1FST2M6, I can’t have these headers compared to the stock manifolds on a dynamometer because for one I don’t have the original manifolds anymore because I sold them. Two, each dynamometer run cost about $100 and I don’t think that’s money well spent. Three, it’s a ***** removing and putting the manifolds back on with the motor in the car.
Phil did say however that he took a stock fiero with 60k miles gave it a tune up and put it on the dynamometer. It put down 110 horsepower to the rear wheels. He then within hour and a half later put the FOCOA headers on the same car and ran it on the dynamometer again. This time he said it laid down 135 horsepower to the rear wheels.
He also said that ported manifolds showed a 10 horsepower gain on the dynamometer. I don’t know if there really is that much hidden horsepower in the fiero’s exhaust system. If there is than the stock manifolds must be really restrictive and there must be a lot of back pressure in those manifolds. All I can say is that I’m sure that these manifolds are going to really wake up my 3.4-liter engine. I have talked to one guy in my area in person at a fiero show who had them put in his 2.8-liter engine. His exact words were when I ask him if he could feel a difference were “It definitely has more nut know”.
The person who builds these headers builds headers for racing engines according to Phil. The guy who builds these headers doesn’t like to build a lot of headers all at once because he makes more money building headers for racing engines than he does for fiero’s. This is why it takes so long to get them sometimes. It’s not Phil’s fault as some people make it seem. With the exception of the crossover flange sticking into the collector (I’m just overly picky) the rest of the construction is some of the best I have ever seen for a custom set of headers, it is excellent. The welds are perfect. The pipes fit excellent. The flanges are supper thick 3/8” and they are one piece flanges. He even gives you the copper silicone sealant with all the hardware you need to install these headers on the car. This is why he probably has sold about 1000 sets so far and has only had one come back because the guy wrapped them in that heat insulation that retains water. In the instructions he says not to use this wrap on these headers.
[This message has been edited by 88formula (edited 07-02-2001).]
