"........I plan on painting them and I'm aware of the opinions on this subject as no heat resistant paint works well......"


My experience with header/exhaust manifold painting is that it's not so much the paint but the prep and curing that determines how well the finish holds up.

The first step is to get the part absolutely clean and have a surface with a good "tooth" to hold the paint. This usually involves sand or bead blasting.

The next step is to paint and cure the parts. I usually apply 2 or 3 coats and cure the paint between each coat. I let the paint air dry and then go over it with a handheld propane torch (you can tell when it's cured as the solvents in the paint will come to the surface and evaporate off) let it cool a little and apply the next coat.

I've done this for several years on manifolds and both new and used headers. The paint usually holds up and looks good for over 5 years.