Ceramic coating inside old dirty manifolds
#1
Ceramic coating inside old dirty manifolds
Hey guys , well I've been reading the benefits of ceramic coating and I want to ceramic coat the inside and outside of my hot side/manifolds . BUT After calling the only ceramic coater I can find in south Florida "hot shots" I was not to convince . I'm using my truck manifolds for the turbo, so my question was how are you going to remove all the carbon buildup from inside the manifolds and he said all they do is sandblast as far as the sand would reach ... I was thinking they would dip it in some sort of tank .. second, the hot side is being build with mandrel bends . Well this bends have a coating of some sort of oil in the inside. I think so they don't rust while they are being stored. How would he remove that coating with only sandblasting ... I don't feel comfortable now coating the inside being that is has to travel thru the turbo .. if it was a regular exhaust I wouldnt mind because the flaking wouldn't damage anything but with a turbo in the way I kinda lost confidence..what are your thoughts ...
#2
TECH Veteran
iTrader: (1)
I have never trusted ceramic coating the inside of turbo headers for exactly the same flaking concern you have expressed. Even if the odds are slim that you would have a problem (I'm not so sure how slim they are), I don't see enough of a benefit once the outside is coated already.
#4
this place was charging me 275 to coat both manifolds . I think I rather just coat the out side my self with flame proof vht paint and then wrap them .. If this places would of told me they do some sort of acid wash and so on I would of felt comfortable . But then again I would always have in the back of my mind " I wonder if they are flaking off "
#7
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#14
TECH Addict
iTrader: (1)
I'm think the BBQ paint is more for rust prevention rather than for holding in heat like the cerakote. I used BBQ paint on the 4" downpipe. With my car running you can put your hand on the hot side and not burn yourself. The combination of ceramic and wrapping works really well
#16
TECH Enthusiast
$275 is probably a fair deal. I had mine blasted and coated both inside and out. I paid $375 for it. The guy quoted me 2 prices, one for the commodity stuff, and one for the good stuff, the $375 was supposed to be the best stuff and is rated 2500F. Like another poster was saying the coating only goes as far as the blasting does, or about as far as you can see inside them. You can see the coating is getting a little thinner really deep inside the manifolds, because the gloss drops a little because it isn't filling the casting grain as well as it does on the outside.
I cleaned mine as well as I could before I took them to get blasted. I used paint reducer and cleaned all the carbon out of them. I soaked them in a dip pan with it, then rinsed them with fresh MEK afterwards. Honestly they probably could have been painted just as I took them to the coater. I also used a grinder and flap wheel and smoothed all the seams and sharp edges on them too. I paid $80 for the manifolds, then $375 to have them coated, so $455 total cost. For about $50 more I could have bought 0.120" walled stainless turbo headers with V bands. Maybe that would have been the better way to go, but I have about as nice a set of manifolds as I've ever seen now.
One other thing that I found interesting was the coater told me the paint had to be baked for 48hrs at 450F to be fully cured. That's a lot of heat.
I cleaned mine as well as I could before I took them to get blasted. I used paint reducer and cleaned all the carbon out of them. I soaked them in a dip pan with it, then rinsed them with fresh MEK afterwards. Honestly they probably could have been painted just as I took them to the coater. I also used a grinder and flap wheel and smoothed all the seams and sharp edges on them too. I paid $80 for the manifolds, then $375 to have them coated, so $455 total cost. For about $50 more I could have bought 0.120" walled stainless turbo headers with V bands. Maybe that would have been the better way to go, but I have about as nice a set of manifolds as I've ever seen now.
One other thing that I found interesting was the coater told me the paint had to be baked for 48hrs at 450F to be fully cured. That's a lot of heat.
Last edited by ScottyBG; 12-16-2016 at 01:59 PM.
#17
They do look good ! I wonder what he meant by commodity stuff and what was this good stuff .. I'm allready convive Im going to do it my self , the hardest part in all this is the prep work .. I just rather buy the best stuff .. but I might still not do the inside , my mind would wonder to much lol and all I'm looking is for peace of mind
#19
Yea I brushed my por15 ... your right I'm going to wrap them anyways might as well brush it on with a foam brush , the only benefit I see with spraying is that you can do multiple thin coats to avoid peeling but if is anything like por15 it didn't really matter
#20
Basically everything else that has been suggested is just a paint that may hold up to the temps.
Swain's coating is a true thermal barrier, it noticeably reduces the amount of heat lost.