Are there any good do it yourself header coatings? I'm more concerned with heat than rust, but can't swing the cash for ceramic coated headers, and i will NOT use header wrap. Thanks.
I dont know if they are still around, but we have used some coatings from tech line....they have a black and a "ceramic" color...the black has been on our twin turbo car for a number of years now....still looks good. I will do a search and see if I can find some info real quick for ya. reed
I've had excellent results with VHT, BUT!!!! only when I preheated the headers with a propane torch immediately before painting them.
...the VHT works well too...sometimes I dont think of the "simple" way of doing things! HemiRambler is right, you gotta prep very well with anything, and "cooking" the coating is an important step in the process. VHT has a black coating, silver and of course cast iron and white...I have had the best luck with the cast iron and black. good luck
Thanks for the info. VHT won't help with heat much. The Techline looks alright. How does it compare to "real" ceramic coating in reguards to heat transfer?
Jeff....there was a tech article in an old Rodder's digest magazine about a guy who waited for his wife to go to her mother's for the weekend before he used "ceramicote" to coat his headers. It sprays on sandblasted headers and then requires baking in the oven. He used the oven in his kitchen but it was too small. He fab'd up a homemade oven extension from tin foil and baked the headers the required time....then polished the new coating up with 00 steel wool. Said it looked like chrome and stayed nice for many years afterward. Best part was, it cost him about $25.
Used black satin from tech line 4 years ago bought it at speedways seems to last and hold up well but its a little too pricey.
try bbq. black from home depot or wharever. have it on my harley, with no fading or nothing yet. 4 bucks a can...
I have been around several "thermal barrier" type coatings with our business (high performance turbochargers)...we are always looking for the best thermal properties...the more heat we can keep in the pipes, the more power/response we can get out of the turbo system. We started off using the standard Jet Hot stuff in the middle 90's, mainly due to the lack of anything else out there. We were using there "bright" ceramic coating at that time...the interesting thing is that the simple ceramic coating that came on early headers (the stuff that kinda looks like sand glued to the pipe!) was a Much Better insulator than the standard jet hot stuff. We then tried the Swain and Tech Line stuff, found them to be very durable, but possess minimal themal blocking properties...both stayed on the headers (.064 321 stainless steel in most cases) all the way to 1700+ EGT's. Great cosmetic properties, but you could get something comparable out of a spray can. Fast forward to 1996, we were approached by HPC in Oklahoma to try a new coating they called HiPerCoat Extreme....all I can say it is one of the best coatings we have ever tested. Our small engine (1200 cc Honda drag bike) was able to pick up consistant 400-450 RPM faster response out of the turbo system (this was HUGE at the time, due to the lack components for a more efficient turbo)...We then coated the whole header system on my Buick turbo street car, but first we did some R&D with a thermocouple placed in different locations under the hood. We averaged a 70 degree drop in under hood temps with the coated system, and when we made pulls on the ch***is dyno you could hold your hand within 3 inches of the turbine housing comfortably. Keep in mind the outside temp of this housing under a full pull would reach 1500 degrees quickly. Sorry for the long response, but if you are needing the thermal blocking properties, it is going to be tough to do at the house...I would call HPC, and I say this only because we have used there service and I know it works. There are probobly others out there that have a comparable product, though. Be prepared if you call, the stuff is not cheap... If you are looking for other ideas, besides "wrapping" the pipe, have you considered a really trick looking heat shield? Almost all early race applications had these really awesome heat shields that were usually attached to a welded boss right off of the header/pipe. Look at any early Indy car or racers of the two wheeled variety...lots of great looking ideas that very few people these days think about! If all you are needing is to protect you or a component from direct heat, all you really need to create is a small air gap between the pipe and the shield and it works like magic. I'll quit typing now! --reed
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