I doubt it - it's my understanding the dimples on a golf ball are there more so to produce lift, as opposed to 'flow.'

When it comes to flow in a pipe, the only real variables to compare are Reynolds number, which dictates laminar vs turbulant flow. The less bends, restrictions, changes in cross area, etc the better. Considering extruded pipe is pretty dang smooth to begin with, I don't think a coating would help in this department. A much bigger variable to power in ths part of the equation would be primary size, primary length, collector design, ect as opposed to ID coatings. Thus, which metal used isn't important from a power standpoint, but it does factor in to material price, and weight (think corvettes titanium exhaust), as well as corrosion and durability.

 

well they also dimpled a car on mythbusters, drag was decreased and mpg was improved so there has to be a benefit to airflow. Also combined with the heat retention I think there could possibly be a slight benefit to coating ID of piping. Whether its cost effective for the gains would be another issue.

 

hate using mythbusters as a reference so heres another

 

Thats a very good video bro! Glad you brought that up, ceramic coating could possibly have a similar effect on the flow like the pattern of a golf ball does. Pretty big debate

 

why wouldnt it? its porous. It will act in a similar manner. Until there is more testing done on this I guess we will just agree to disagree.

 

Agreed, it makes perfect sense. There alot of companies coating headers now days and they must have a better reason than just the same old "to keep cooler temperatures outside the headers" whenever I think its more big of a deal in the inside of the header.

 

Do a search on Swain Tech Coating, or go to Swaintech.com You can coat ring lands, but not every firm wants to do it. The ring grooves must be slightly larger to accommodate for the coatings thickness. You can coat crankshafts, connecting rods, exhaust ports, etc. If you are in a restrictive racing class where you cannot port, you can coat the intake ports to smooth them out.

If you coat the backside of the valves some vendors want you to coat the valves before the valves are ground and lapped. Otherwise, if you get some coating on the seat, it must be removed mechanically, not chemically. Hence, your valve job is ruined.

It is easy to purchase main and rod bearings that are coated. I have piston pins that are DLC (diamond like coating) coated. Very, very smooth. It is said that if you coat the piston tops then you should coat the cylinder head chambers to keep the heat reflected inside the cylinder. A good coating on both the chambers and pistons can allow you to run a tad more compression or advance without worrying about knock.

It's expensive, but it lasts and I've never heard about anyone loosing power from coating.

If you're interested in coating headers, then check out Jet Hot. They have thick coatings that are good to 2500 degrees I believe. But, the thick high-temp header coatings are for function and not appearance.

I have the ring and pinion gears in my GTO coated with a friction reducing, oil shedding coating. They may be a tad louder, but it's one place where getting rid of friction is a no brainer. Some people have transmission gears polished, others have them coated.

I have my new crankshaft micro-polished, so it looks kind of like chrome, but I'm also getting it coated. That along with a vacuum pump is free power through efficiency.

 

Great info^

Never knew soo much about coating. It has its great impacts on other parts other than headers.

 

PolyDyn makes all sorts of coatings for cylinder heads - valves, combustion chambers, intake and exhaust runners. They have a coating for pretty much anything...pistons, intake manifolds, headers, crankshafts, etc.

 

For my last engine, I had the pistons ceramic coated (tops) and teflon coated (skirts). The chambers of the heads, valves, and exhaust ports were ceramic coated. With 11.5:1 I could run around town on 87octane in the AZ 110 degree summer (wouldn't do it regularly, just did it to test).

 

I'm pretty sure it keeps exhaust gas velocity up, which is why people who do rear mounts sometimes coat and/or wrap all the piping to (in theory) get slightly quicker spool times. If the heat isn't getting out it is still being retained in the pipes and hot air has more volume, more volume means more pressure in the pipes, meaning it moves out the path of least resistance faster.