I know it may seem like common sense that paint will reduce the temperatures but this is in fact not the case. Simply painting the headers will make the heat in the engine compartment slightly worse.

Any high temp paint out of a spray can is usually has a flat finish when you get into the 1500F paint needed for headers. Even though you are adding a thin layer of paint, this minimal insulation value is quickly overcome by the fact that Flat finishes help dissipate radiant heat better than shiny surfaces.

I'm an engineer and we have a test lab that performs heat tests regularly on copper. The same principles apply here. Sometimes if the temperature is higher than we want we can apply a whole bunch of stickers or paint all over the metal and the ability of the copper (or in this case the headers) to dissipate heat goes up significantly, hence heating your engine compartment.

Having them ceramic coated will add an insulating layer and reduce the heat as compared to paint.

 

Just put them in and enjoy them

 

Mine looked like **** after a while

 

i think ima just put em in and enjoy em lol, i mean even if they end up not lookin great later, nobody is goin to be lookin closely under the hood, all they are goin to be seein is the taillights lol. in this case im goin to sacrafice looks for performance in a heartbeat