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MG MGB GT V8 Factory Originals Technical - Ceramic coating

I was told by a friend that I should send my headers out to get a ceramic coating put on them. Is this a good idea or not? I purchased the headers from D&D and he told me that I should get a coating on them, but I was not sure if he mentioned ceramic or powder coating. I don't know the difference between the two. If you had yours ceramic coated did it help with reducing the heat in the engine compartment? The guy that I have talked to about the coating said that it will reduce heat by as much as 35%.

Thanks, Gary
Gary

I seem to remember a lot of discussion about this topic on other MG threads in the last couple of years.
The general conclusion was that any coating done that would prevent the exhaust manifold from radiating heat would be likely to cause it to crack. So be warned. I think powder coating is OK - but not a true ceramic coating.
robert pulleyblank

I have used JETHOT, the best known ceramic coating, on several header applications, and recommend it highly. I am not aware of any cracking caused by coating. Wrapping headers will lead to cracking. I have JETHOT on my TR8 Huffaker headers that are now 20 years old with no problems. They were first coated about 10 years ago. Powder coating will not stand up to the heat of an exhaust header. Most powder cures at about 400 degrees F. Your header will see 1200+. If you want to preserve your headers and reduce the heat radiated, ceramic coating is the only viable option. It is much advanced over the aluminizing that we used before ceramic was available.
john roper

John is right. I wpould like to add that Ceramic coating is used to protect and to reduce heat out side but retain the heat were it really counts, this translates into HP. Headers cool to fast when wrapt they crack. powder coating is only done in the outside, ceramic is done inside and outside the header. Like John, my headers were done in 1978 when it was first introduce as stardard in some aircraft parts. The headers still look great.

Bill
Bill Guzman

Very interesting about the inside and outside coating Bill. I wonder if they do that for Formula 1 and CART racing?
bob pulleyblank

Over the years i have heard good things about JetHot coating for headers. Just exactly how does one go about getting your headers coated. I am in search for addresses, phone numbers, turn around time, cost, shipping instructions. In other words if I had to do this tomarrow how would i go about it?

Thanks in advance.

Larry
Larry Diede

Go to a news stand and look in the back pages (classifieds) of HotRod or Car Craft or similar mags. The Jet Hot people and their competitors will have ads there. Check also your phone book Yellow Pages under "Coatings". In my city (half the size of Denver), I found an industrial high-temp coating place. Their front shop had many exhaust headers and pipes and similar stuff from car hobbyists. In the back was the big oilfield and industrial stuff. They charged me $50CDN to bead blast and ceramic coat my '71 exhaust manifold and it still looks great 2 years and a lot of miles later; no discolouration or flaking.

Moral: there's lots of places that do this stuff and probably way cheaper than the big advertisers.
bobwilson

http://www.jet-hot.com/
Bruce Mills

Seems as i've heard that JetHot coating unused (new) headers works great but trying it on used headers doesn't give as a good a job, both in appearance and efficiency. There is something similar i think that can be bought in liquid form although i don't think the temp tolerance is as high (no, not powder coating).
This same stuff can be used to coat piston tops, valve faces, etc. all in an attempt to keep heat in the air, not in the metal.
Jack Morris

It seems like there should be a place in the Denver metro area that would do ceramic coating, but I guess not. I called Denver Specialties on E Colfax and they send their stuff to High Performance Coatings in Salt Lake City. I also sent for and received some stuff from Jet Hot. They sent a 8 minute video showing the whole process, complete with a short commercial message from "Big Daddy" Don Garlits. I thought the estimate over the phone was a little high - $279.00 for my homemade headers. Of course, you can't get the real price until you send the headers to one of their factories.
Al

About 15 years ago I had a set of custom fenderwell headers coated by HPC (High Performance Coatings) I was reasonably satisfied with the results until I had to drive the car in the winter. The salt penetrated the coating and discolored it and caused it to peel. This happened the first time it was exposed. I don't know if Jethot is any more resistant than HPC, but I wouldn't expect any miracles from the stuff. For what it cost though you would think you could.
Caveman

I have been using Techline brand coatings at home since
they have been made avilable to the public with good
results.
I coat everything! piston tops & skirts, combustion
chambers, valves, bearings, timing sets, etc., etc.
anything that turns or rubs can usually be coated to
reduce friction &/or tempeture.
e-mail me at www.sportscarsplus@aol.com for comments
Randy Forbes

This thread was discussed between 13/01/2000 and 26/02/2000

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