I have noticed in some pics of some jet coated exhaust manifold, the coating didnt last long and looked kinda booty. Anyone had luck with ceramic coating instead?

 

I've personally done ceramic coating on the exterior of a few of my exhaust manifolds and while it comes out nice and pretty after scuffing it with fine steel wool, over time the coating will result in a flat silver look. I only have experience using the "chrome" ceramic coating, but not any of the others like aluminum look, cast iron look, or flat black.

 

I have had black ceramic coating coating on my factory exhaust manifold for over a year and it looks about as good as the day I installed it. It has held up really well. Check it out here:

http://users2.ev1.net/~subaru/evo_web/evo_exhaust.htm