Best High Heat Spray Paint to Prevent Rust on an Exhaust - 7 Month Winter Test 

Im a mechanic in NY and these cheap exhausts normally only last 2 years before a connection rots away or a weld fails and you have to cut and sleeve it. Guaranteed you’ll get a few trouble free years from your work. Awesome.

The welded seams are NOT rusting from the inside out! Weld seams can rust easily because of oxygen corrosion, also known as "knife cut" corrosion. The welding process creates a Heat Affected Zone (HAZ) that changes the structure of the metal grains, which can lead to pinhole leaks. The weld metal is usually optimized to improve its mechanical properties, which makes it more "anodic" than the base steel. This can cause the weld metal to corrode at higher rates than the base metals. If you can find a "high heat weldable primer" it will help.

The weld heat changes the metal, you can brush high temp grease at the joints then wrap them with aluminum tape , just peel off when the salt season has passed

This is going to sound a bit odd and sketchy. But I know a fellow here in Ohio who paints his pipes and exhaust with rubberized undercoating. It turns into a hard coating and oddly, doesn't catch fire. :)

I will have to replace exhaust parts soon and I plan to do some painting on my new stuff just to hope it prolongs life a bit. Thanks a lot for the experimentation, I didn't know to scuff up the exhaust!

Loved it! Get that nasty rust in illannoz too. Picked up a project this winter and trying to paint as i go. Thanks for the experiment! Have a safe weekend!

Excellent idea, nice presentation. Thank you as these is great question.

The catalytic converter is emissions related and, therefore, likely stainless, which explains the lack of rust.

I just started playing with cerakote. I am coating everything with it. I am not even doing the prep all that good after how I seen it do on a rusty chisel. I tried the high heat black on my over axel pipe to tip and it did not hold up well. I order a new 5 inch system for my truck last week and going to try the cerakote on it. Figure you might want to check the product out. C series is the one you want to try. 1800 degrees of heat resistance and no oven needed. .

Just got a ‘quality 409 stainless steel’ exhaust for $300 shipped off ebay, going to coat it in that vht for these pnw winters. Thanks for the video

This was super helpful! Thank you very much

I've used VHT header paint to paint an entire exhaust in Vermont- where there's more salt on the road than snow, water, cars, dirt or anything else... they love it salty. The results are fantastic, and the only issue I've had is the hardware. If you don't use stainless hardware, it's now the weakest link. I have a 22 year old exhaust system on my work van used to haul race cars, and the only issue was a weld breaking that corroded from the inside out. Makes me wonder if it's possible to coat the INSIDE of a new exhaust system well enough to stop that from happening. Another tip I'd suggest is that these paints need heat to cure initially- so after I paint them, I get a propane or map gas torch and heat it all up until the paint changes color a little. Some exhaust systems won't get hot enough- OR if there's some time between paint and driving the vehicle, the paint may come off or get moisture affecting adhesion before it's ever heated enough to cure properly. Thanks for a great video and a great idea!

the issue here is all the coatings are only really going to be as strong as the base when you get down to the important aspect..... however, something is better than nothing!

One problem I've just noticed lately is, many exhaust parts for older vehicles are being discontinued by Walker. I Was able to buy a complete from the cat back system for my '92 Dodge Shadow only a few years ago, now the intermediate and extension pipes are that well known element called Unobtainium.

I kind of like that the orange changes to black. It's not chipped or flaking.

Super helpful test, thank you! Maybe it helps if you apply the paint a bit thicker on the weldings?

Awesome, did you follow the curing instructions on the 2000 degree can?

HELL FUCKING YES. Mid west salt is no fucking joke. Watched a quarter panel rust out in one season, after that I always use mudflaps.

So I have a question. I painted the two headers and muffler on my zero turn mower with the Rust-Oleum 2000°paint. It's got a couple coats. My question is can I heat cure/bake it in while I mow or would it be better to heat cycle it sitting in place?? Didn't know if running full throttle mowing would just flake off or burn off. The exhaust systems are quite expensive so trying to keep it good for as long as possible. From what I read at 3600 rpm the exhaust gets up to 600° really quickly.

The original exhaust system on my 1997 Buick Lesabre has a little surface rust here and there, but I live in South Carolina. When I changed a leaky flange gasket, the bolts actually came out. I don't know how anyone could stand it up there.

I would personally want my exhaust to be fully black

Nice test! Thanks

Should do video on kbs .they seem like good paint they got good cears i think to .urethane that is slow cured whatever that means.cerakote is getting more expensive kbs is cheaper but not ceramic

If that exhaust is made from “aluminized” steel, it would explain why only the welds rusted. The paint may be doing nothing since aluminized pipe or SS would not corrode in one year, even without paint.

I live in Texas not far from the gulf I have had 3 bbq pits rust one rusted all the way through Now i have a pellet grill rusting and was wondering can that paint be used on bbq pits both the fire box. And the 4’ long 28” inches around. And can the racks be sprayed as well to stop. Rusting

You seem to have forgotten the CAT is stainless.

The cat is not meant to be painted. I Was told.this by the makers of VHT Flameproof a.k.a Dupli c Color

So you're painting with discontinued paints. How exactly is this going to help us?

Stainless steel is the only way to go it'll outlive the vehicle.

is it possible for the paint to entrap heat? say on a catalytic converter. would this cause any issues?

Hey is that a saleen speedster tonnaeu cover on the wall???

I appreciate what you where attempting to do but your approach and execution are flawed in several different ways. 1st the exhaust you purchased appears to be aluminized (which is a very good anti rust coating) and very hard to get removed completely, that's why all the weld joints were rusted because welding will burn through the aluminized and leave rare steel. 2nd the cat is probable stainless steel 3rd there are very specific instructions on the paints for curing which where completely ignored and at least for the HIGH HEAT paint makes a huge difference. If you really want to do the test correctly get a 5 foot section of bare steel and repeat the test with the proper baking procedures or get as close as you can with a heat gun. My preference is to use a heat gun to blow through and heat from the inside out to bake. I do appreciate the video but it could use some tweaking to get better real results.

Thank you for making your exhaust look terrible for science haha

its CANADA not canadia

Why didn't you use the primer before you painted?

Im sure your bud lite color exhaust posted in June is just a kwiky dink....