Ceramic coat ?

sixpack577

sixpack577

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I have some questions about ceramic coating if anyone can help.
First of all, it's not a bike, but cast iron exhaust manifolds for a Land Rover Discovery 4.6 V8.
I want to get the exhaust manifolds coated, mainly just to get rid of the rust, and keep the engine bay cleaner as result.
I'm rebuilding it now, but it isn't a show vehicle, so I'm looking for function, not fancy.
No, headers are not available, and I am currently port matching the heads to intake and exhaust manifolds.
Ceramic coating is known to noticeably reduce under hood temps, which is a plus.
It holds the heat in, allowing more to exit through the exhaust pipes, rather than radiate off of the manifolds themselves.
The problem is, if you insulate the exhaust manifolds too much, then you put too much heat through the catalytic converters.
I talked to a guy who wrapped his manifolds in gold reflective heat tape, making a measurable decrease in under hood temps...and causing the cats to glow red hot. He removed the tape, cats went back to normal.
So, my real question is; Am I going to have the same problem with ceramic coat as I would with heat tape? I'm afraid it's yes, unless someone has a good reason against that.
I know ceramic coating manifolds and headers is common for race cars, but they don't have cats.
Has anyone ceramic coated manifolds with cats?
Any reason that reflective gold heat tape would hold in more heat than ceramic?
Any known solutions?
Again, looks aren't a big deal, I just hate rust, and I will never paint another manifold with high temp paint, as it Always burns off.
Any info is appreciated, as I'de hate to pay however much for ceramic, only to have to gut the cats, or buy dummys to weld in.
 
Mr Brown said:
Why don't you gut the cats prior to application?
Click to expand...

Sounds terrible that way, causes check engine light unless O2's have a spacer(then still might), new cat pipe is $500 too.
Exhaust stinks, and it'll pass inspection here, but not anywhere with a tail pipe sniffer.
Also a $10k fine in Va now.
Or, the time and money of weld in dummy cats, plus it still won't pass emissions.
I have a love/hate relationship with this pos.
Fortunately, the floor is made out of .003" beer can aluminum, so any extra heat from the cats will melt a hole in the floor, lol.
Until I finish putting radiant barrier under the carpet, you can really feel the heat there too.

There has got to be a generic formula for ceramic heat transfer somewhere.
Coating a certain amount of surface area= x percentage drop in radiant heat, which in turn should equal the extra amount of heat that has to go elsewhere/out through the pipes.
So, for example, if it can hold in 10 more degrees, that 10 degrees will increase on the exit end.
I feel like I'm chasing my tail with this thing.
 
The heat is gonna go somewhere, if it's not disapated in the engine bay it's gonna travel down the line...
 
I guess the question to ask is; Has anyone had a bike or car header ceramic coated, and checked it before and after coating, engine running using a temperature gun.
For example, if the header was 10 degrees cooler after coating, I will *assume* that the temperature in the pipe after it increases by 10 degrees.
I think that the gold reflective tape(that I mentioned in my first post), was reflecting more radiant heat back into the manifolds, more so than ceramic coating could, only that the tape(metallic), may not last very long applied to that level of heat. We'll never know as the tape had to be removed because it was cooking the cats.

Has anyone here that powder coats sprayed ceramic coat?
Any idea of what kind of insulating ability it has, to what amount in degrees??
 
I have read alot of positive reviews about Jet-Hot over the years, and again recently.
Many applications on vehicles with cats, and I cannot find any mention of it making the cats too hot...not to say it can't, as this is a pos Land Rover.
 
I have Jet hot on the yamaha T max header I built . it made a difference , but no cat on the bike anymore .
The range rover cats always sucked . why not replace them with high flow cats universal ?
 
c10 said:
I have Jet hot on the yamaha T max header I built . it made a difference , but no cat on the bike anymore .
The range rover cats always sucked . why not replace them with high flow cats universal ?
Click to expand...

I have considered replacing the cats, but, these things are huge money pits.
Jethot, new cats, and custom exhaust would be over a grand.
I was hoping to coat the manifolds and be done with the exhaust.
I would happily paint the stock exhaust manifolds with a brush, and with anything that wouldn't burn off.
Which is all I really want any way, stock manifolds that won't rust.
Ceramic coating is all that I know that won't.
If I could spray or brush on stove paint, and it not burn off, I'de be happy.
Any suggestions for that??
 
When I first started painting headers the paint would just fly off going the first 100 yards down the road and I assumed that was the way super hot tube headers were but about the third project I did I kept getting interrupted on my startup... turn off to correct timing... Did I finish putting in the oil turn off to double check oil level. Bottom line is the headers just heated up a bit then cooled and the end result was they looked new and clean for a long time instead of frying the paint all off, so I did it that way and never burned it off a painted set again.
 
Bailey9r said:
When I first started painting headers the paint would just fly off going the first 100 yards down the road and I assumed that was the way super hot tube headers were but about the third project I did I kept getting interrupted on my startup... turn off to correct timing... Did I finish putting in the oil turn off to double check oil level. Bottom line is the headers just heated up a bit then cooled and the end result was they looked new and clean for a long time instead of frying the paint all off, so I did it that way and never burned it off a painted set again.
Click to expand...

When my rebuild cranks, it'll need 20 minutes at 2k rpm to break in the cam.
The manifolds are gonna get hot, and stay that way, so I don't have that luxury.
Thanks for the info though, as there probably is a specific curing process for best results.
 
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