[Rev]

It's the headers that are ceramic coated, not the x-pipe. If you're building a fairly mild street engine, you'll not see much difference in the tri-y's versus the 4 into 1 long tube headers. The tri-y's probably will give you a little more low end torque while the 4 into 1 type headers will give you more high rpm power with the right cam, heads, and induction. It all depends on what you're trying to get out of the engine.

I did order the Dr. Gas x-pipe kit and installed it myself. I did have to wrestle with the pipes a little to get them to hook up to my existing system. It did involve some welding on the x-pipe kit which was a PITA with my puny little welder. You may want to get that done by a muffler shop to avoid the wrestling aspect of it.

I installed the headers in about 2 hours. The rest of it took the rest of the week end. That's with the car on jack stands in the driveway and me lying on my back. With a lift and a mig welder, it could be done a lot easier and in a lot less time.

I'm sure that the Hooker headers would do well for you instead of the Patriot tri-y's. The Patriot ceramic coated tri-y's cost me $329. That price is OK IMHO and the quality was acceptable to me.

Rev