Well, it's a long story, but I want to make sure I add all of the details so people can decide for themselves.
My original manifolds leaked. I was told by an exhaust shop that they were cracked and I had to replace them. The estimate was crazy, so I just thought I'd do it myself - someday. About 2 weeks later, may son was born so I didn't touch the truck for about a year.
When I got back to it, I bought a set of new Dorman manifolds. I cleaned them up with a degreaser to remove any oil on them and painted them with probably three coats of the Eastwood paint. I don't drive the truck a lot because there's always something that needs fixed. So I would say that after about 1 year and 50 miles, most of the manifold paint had rusted through. Was it something I did wrong? Sure, why not, but I followed the instructions on the can to a tee, and in my book, that should be all one needs to do.
Here are some pics when I had the engine out:
So, I was pretty discouraged with those results. Plus, the Dormans leaked just like the old ones, and I was going to have to get them machined so the mating surface was flat. i wasn't happy with Chinese manifolds on my truck, and when I was rebuilding my engine I was really discouraged about what to do. I wanted to get the Sppedway rams horns, but they were $500 and I would still have to figure out a solution for the straight-dump to angled-dump.
So I circled back to where I started at my original GM manifolds. Despite what I was told, there weren't any cracks in them, just carbon build up. I kinda put them off to the side because they had studs snapped off in them, and I didn't want to deal with finding a shop to get them out without charging me an arm and a leg.
I signed up for an engine class at a local community college and used a torch there to get the studs out. I had never used a die grinder before in my life, so the results were certainly not the result of any expert technique on my part. You could probably accomplish the same thing with a scuffing pad, a lot of time, and Popeye forearms.
I just cleaned all the crud off of the old manifolds, took a paper towel and smeared the Calyx stuff on the manifolds. It was pretty easy and I've been happy with it so far. If you go this route, wear some gloves to you don't get that graphite stuff all over your hands.
I hope whatever you try works out for you. I have to say that if I didn't use the Calyx, I would have probably spent the money getting the manifolds ceramic coated before I would have tried painting them again.
And, if it matters, I am one of those people about whom you can say that if I can do this, anyone can. Good luck.
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