Stainless steel header vs mild steel header interest
 

I'm working on a project... I don't know if the market would want it, but soliciting some opinions:

Ignoring UEL vs EL benefits/drawbacks for a moment, some questions:

• Would you prefer mild steel or stainless steel for an aftermarket header?
• If the headers was coated, would the type of material make a difference?

I'm trying to get a Japanese brand to offer a quality made in Japan aftermarket header at a price point much lower than what their stainless steel competitors have on the market, but not sure how many of us would accept a mild steel construction header. One plus of mild steel is that it is less prone to cracking and less sound than stainless steel, but it's also heavier than stainless steel.

-alex

If I could afford it, and didn't care about the sound, I'd get titanium headers like the Blox

Thanks for your feedback. I'm only asking about stainess steel vs mild steel.

I had a car with mild steel manifold and got cracked. I would go with stainless steel as long its "beefier" like my JDL UEL header, assuming staying NA.

I'd prefer a coating over stainless.
Cost and performance over material.
Bang for the buck is always good.
Gruppe-s is hard to beat, but if your product made more power I'd consider it.
I actually like mild steel or an optional heat shield for an oem look. Stainless and/or heat wrap screams send me to the REF.

Non stainless steel would scare me for the sake of lack of corrosion resistance.. If your coating worked well to counteract this than I could be persuaded.

As a mechanical engineer, if you could develop a header (or know of one) that had great (provable) gains at a great price without being too thin (to avoid cracking) and had good corrosion resistance I would be keen to try it out.

I'm the type of buyer that puts their money on R&D, Quality and Price. I currently own the Nameless Stepped 4-2-1 header for those reasons. Couldn't quite justify the added cost for the ACE. Both of which have great quality and R&D. Between those 2 it came down to price. What I refused to do, was buy a knockoff..

I've had a mild steel header on a previous car. It cracked off completely at the collector flange on my way home from work one day.

I'd never consider another mild steel header.

Even if it was made by a top company in Japan?

No interest at all. Too many good stainless options, and subaru manifolds always seem to be pricey.

So basically what you're saying is that it'll be a very well-made header, just with a cheaper material used so it'll cost less.

I don't see the point in that.

stay with stainless...why risk and pay more in future? do it right at first

With coating on a mild steel header.

Are you coating the inside too?

That's one of the plans, yes.

Trying to get it coated locally in SoCal. Obviously if everyone hates on mild steel then I just won't be as aggressive in bringing them in.