I have my sidewinder intake coated with HPC's silver finish ceramic and it is very easy to keep clean. I don't know if it helps or hurts the perfomance but it sure does look nice and doesn't stain (at least easily). I am swithing to a single plane edelbrock and coating it along with the expansion tank (try keeping paint on that for any lenght of time) the timing cover, alternator body, remote
oil filter adapter, etc. All in matching and lasting coatings. Do it and you will not regret it!
Tony Hull