DIY Ceramic Coating

[3400-95-Modified]

I bought some Colorguard Stainless coating by Tech Line Coatings....

I'm testing it on my front header and so far its looking pretty promising... I hope that it comes out ok in the end. Its also listed as a thermal barrier so I hope it not only keeps the headers protected but also works as real ceramic coating, since technically that is what it is.

Directions say to sand blast with any media other than glass bead, clean part very well after blasting acetone base cleaner, then apply with professional spray gun, wait 24hrs for it to dry and then polish it to a medium luster and install part, cure with low RPM running and DO NOT cure in a oven. Then polish once again to get a more brilliant shine....

So far this is what I have. Just painted....







Progress, I didn't spend much time polishing yet.

[pocket-rocket]

That's nice looking. Much cheaper the JET coating I bet, to boot.

[3400-95-Modified]

This kit ran me $70 and it was a 12oz kit, enough to do a "Large" set of headers...

I have more than half left and just the rear header to do if this works out on the front.

I'm hoping once I'm done polishing it comes out ok after heating it up.

[Nightingale]

Looks really nice, what about protecting the inside?They also have a high temp ceramic coating for turbocharged cars that protects up to 2000F called TURBO-X, but I have yet to find a supplier. I was thinking one could dump some of the coating inside the header after you seal the ends with some duct tape and shake it around till the insides were nicely coated.

[3400-95-Modified]

no need for me to protect the inside, but yeah thats the only way that I could think of getting the coating in there... Plus these headers have been on the car before so yeah its all carboned up in there, I don't think I would be able to get it all clean enough to coat.

I'm sure you could do that with this though.

I'm mostly doing this for the looks and hopefully contained heat under hood... Granted my car doesnt get all that hot to begin with, I expected more things to end up melting but i didn't have any issues.

[Alxsmt]

looks pretty nice. i paid $250 to get my headers coated from a local guy. 2 coats outside and 1 inside

[Z26-T]

Does it come in black?

EDIT:: Just went to their site and found out for myself.

http://techlinecoatings.com/Exhaust.htm

Black Satin

[Superdave]

I bought some similar stuff in Black a few years ago.. it was $50 for 12oz. I still have the can.. I'll see if i can find it and post up the brand name.


Coating looks good, I've seen brush-on stuff that works as well. What are you using to polish it with?


Good luck with it!

[IsaacHayes]

Wow if that's true from that site it will lower underhood temps a lot!!!!!!

I wonder if the black stuff is the best its listed differently than the colors. But the chrome/silver look is good when you have a black painted motor...

[Z26-T]

How do you bake it on? If I do any of this I won't want to do the "self baking" style, because I will most likely scratch the F out of it while I put it in. When I was putting on my y-pipe for the first time after I had HPC do a ceramic coat on it got scratched because it hadn't been baked yet. Upset me a lot because I spent 100 on 3 feet of pipe and they ingraved their name on the mounting flange for the turbo...

[IsaacHayes]

Air drying requires no baking, cures on car with exhaust heat.
They also have TURBO-X designed for turbo stuff..

[Z26-T]

Yeah, I was asking how to cure it not using the car method . Take a torch to it for a few minutes?

And headerwrap + coating = no no right? What if you just coat the inside of the pipe? I'm assuming the reason they say coating+wrap=bad is because the wrap will just wear off the coating from rubbing, but if you coat the inside then it will still have the increased flow from using a coating, and have some slight under hood temp. reduction.

[IsaacHayes]

Oven would be best. Torch wouldn't work too well I'd guess. The wrap can hold moisture and maybe too much heat and crack the coating off? I dunno. But the coating will reduce underhood temps since it's an insulation and thus keep the exhaust gases hotter which will keep them flowing more instead of cooling off in the headers which will make them condense and slow down since condensed air is more dense/thick.

Ceramic inside and wrap outside would be pretty darn insulated. Best would be some stainless headers like that so the wrap and water wouldn't rust em out. Then add some heat shields like stock and I bet it would be really cool under the hood.

[Z26-T]

Ceramic inside and wrap outside would be pretty darn insulated. Best would be some stainless headers like that so the wrap and water wouldn't rust em out. Then add some heat shields like stock and I bet it would be really cool under the hood.

That's what im thinking, pour some of that coating inside the down pipe and swish it around and stick with the header wrap (since it's already on the down pipe). Would be great to have some turbo headers made from stainless steel, but may be awhile until someone will make any of those, because my welding buddy is too busy with his "family" to do anything for me. Pssh. Family. Okay, they come first.

[IsaacHayes]

Well as Jon above mentioned, carbon build up would likely cause a big problem. Unless maybe you could blast it all out with walnut shells to clean it first. Ever see someone make turbo manifolds from thick cast iron pipe welded up? You could do that then wrap that and who cares if it rusts it's thick! lol