Does anyone have tips for improving the appearance of the exhaust manifold area (buy a new one altogether, wrapping)? I've been working hard at cleaning up the engine bay for upcoming show/shines, but that manifold area is a visible setback.

 

Perhaps you could mask it off, prep the metal and then use a high temp paint which may hold for awhile. Otherwise you may have to remove it and have it ceramic coated, but that too tends to change in time from all the heat.

See link below, the company is very reputable too.

POR-15 Paint And Coatings From ARP POR-20

 

I'll do some looking at these then. I almost wonder if in the long term, ZZP's stainless steel manifold is a viable option. Have you seen or heard of results with these on any of our vehicles?

 

Yes I used to have one, had it ceramic coated and it looked okay after sometime, but they never retain their luster.

Another member here OWENS91 has an uncoated ZZP manifold mounted and he later commented on how tarnished it had become. There is really no way to re-polish them to a high luster.

Mine eventually failed (tons of cracks) and I ended up getting one from CarTuning, which is holding up very well.

Cartuning Performance

 

Yes this is true of was a nicely polished metal and within walking months it's a blueish metal, still better than the stock rusted up manifold

 

Best bet is to get the zzp plog, which is the front manifold. Same thing George got, they change color due to the heat.

Stainless Power Log - Exhaust <-- link