Do you say things like this just to see if I'm hanging around and paying attention...?

If it's a cast manifold, most of the reputable brands of ceramic coating will work fine if the manifold is prepared properly. So JetHot, HPC, Swain, Tech Line, any of those will work fine. Tech Line is actually what Thermal Tech Coatings I believe; they're water born ceramic coatings so they're pretty easy for distributors to do without having much special equipment.

There are usually reasons that coatings have cracking or flaking problems, and those reasons aren't usually blamed. All that you ever hear is "______ brand of coating flakes off" but you never hear that it's a mild steel header that was chipped and has been corroding under the coating or that it's a one piece long tube header under high vibration with poor strain relief. The problem is always blamed on the coating and not the application.

And yes, Swain makes really good coatings but they aren't the only game in town for coating street car parts.