I've heard a few decent things about thermal coating, what exactly is that? More importantly, does anyone know if that helps prevent rust? That's the factor I'm really looking into, how to prevent the turbo from rusting solid like the last one. Will 1200 degree paint hold up to the exhaust side of a turbocharger, or would I be wasting my time? Any other suggestions?
I've never heard of a turbo rusting out before. That seems very unlikely because the head prevents water from collecting or pooling around the turbo and exhaust. All for the exact same reason that the tailpipe, the coolest running exhaust part, rusts out before anything else. To coat the turbo or manifold, you will need to have it sandblasted, and coated. What you coat it with will need to be able to withstand 2000*, as these parts can get VERY hot. The main benifit from coating them is not rust protection (although it is protected), but rather increasing exhaust velocitys and reducing underhood temps.
I paint mine with the 1200* ceramic paint from autozone...works pretty well if you clean it good first.
i tried 1200* paint on my manifold after wirebrushing it clean...lasted about 15 mins into a spirited drive. On a brighter note, it looked nice when i put everything together
Here's what I used on my header (BHK): http://www.techlinecoatings.com/Exhaust.htm It's good stuff. Not pretty, but functional.
you can buy the ceramic stuff they use to coat headers with. It paints on, and then when the motor runs the heat bakes it. Its kinda expensive tho, and if its not totally clean, it will eventually just flake off.
Bhuff: I probably didn't really say that right. The engine was pulled from a wrecked Merkur. If you recall, there were mouse droppings in the intake side of the turbo and the middle section back was indeed rusted. When I said rusted solid, I meant the bolts and strips of metal which hold the exhaust housing to the middle section, not the actual internals. That would be kind of impressive in a bad sort of way though. Stinger: How well has the 1200* paint from autozone held up for you? I have a can of that, I was going to use it on some of the turbo parts, but it looks like that's what the last guy did and it looked like crap. All of it flaked off and baked over and looked like this dull gray/black/rusted mass. That's why I thought I would ask because I want mine to hold up better. Touring23: Don't really care if it looks "pretty" or not. I'm not looking to blind people with Chrome under the hood, but I would like it to look better than stock and a thermal coating would help performance a bit, which is more important than looks anyway (IMHO). Gun metal gray is more appealing than rusted manifold red. That company looks like it has some other colors too, I may go with that. How much has it helped your performance? Any noticeable improvements? Dr_Elusive: How much do Jet Hot coatings usually go for, and what advantage do they have (besides name) over the company Touring23 listed?
Not bad: 18008 TURBO X, BLACK $49.95 8 OZ. 19008 TURBO X, BLUE $49.95 8 OZ. I will have to look into this myself. I was also looking at some of the stuff eastwood has, but they take products and just mark them up. I used some 1500 flat black on my turbo in my 80 stang. It apears to hold up pretty well. But the turbo never got worked extremely hard. The turbo was completely clean when I painted it also! But I had no problems with it. sure got rid of all the nasty surface rust.
The biggest improvement was the reduction in underhood temperatures, and then of course the corrosion protection. The reduction in temperatures was dramatic. Now there's still engine heat so I'm not saying underhood will be ambient, but it is still a dramatic drop. I could touch the header within....oh, maybe a minute after shutting it off. I don't believe you'll see it on the dyno. Note they have licensed shops; I gave $100 to a shop in Seattle to coat my long tube header with the BHK. That included bead blasting and surface prep.
That's cool, I'll probably get some of that for the temp. reduction and corrosion resistance. Thanks all.
