Painting exhaust manifolds/engine parts?

[IdahoDoug]

Anyone have experience with using over the counter aerosol paint on exhaust manifolds and other engine parts? I'm looking for things that will truly hold up for the long run. Looking at the parts shops, there are a lot of paints labeled "engine paint", "high temp paint" etc but I'm hoping someone has actually used a brand and can recommend it. My worst nightmare would be to find out that it eventually starts bubbling or flaking off.

Also, I recall there was a product on the market designed to coat exhaust manifolds that purports to keep heat in and flowing through them (vs radiating the heat into the engine bay). Anyone know of this stuff?

DougM

 

[cruzizzle]

VHT works pretty decent for this. They make some hight temp stuff good for 1500 degrees. I've used this on my V8 stuff before with pretty good results. One of the keys is thay you only apply enough to color whatever you are painting;additional layers just give heat a place to build and that's where a lot of the flaking comes in. I'm not sure what you mean by "long run" ,but with frequent use, this stuff will get you through a couple good years. I don't really know of any "paint" that will last on manifolds for much longer than that simply because of the extreme temp changes that they see..which brings me to your next question.

I think what you are talking about is a product from Tech Line Coatings. Its a thermal barrier with much the same properties as the ceramic coating you see on headers these days. Its a do-it-yourself deal, and comes out looking like a dull aluminum. Much longer lasting than paint, although the appearance of the finished product isn't really up my alley.

My best advice would be to send the manifold to Jet Hot or one of the other companies that do ceramic coating. It's probably gonna knock you back ~200 bucks, but I think they have a lifetime warranty against the finish cracking or peeling (although I'm not 100% sure on that). For some reason, the Tech Line stuff just doesn't have the same clean appearance of the job the Jet Hot does, if you're into that sort of thing. I'm also not sure on the chemical composition comparison of the two. Either way, these do keep the pipes hotter, which burns the mixture better, which flows the exhaust better, and keeps the engine bay a few degrees cooler at the same time.

Dave.

 

[chitown40]

POR makes a high-temp manifold paint, which I've used on the headers on my 40. It seemed to hold up pretty well, but just wasn't pretty looking at all. It goes on about the same as regular POR, very thin, but with good coverage. About two coats should provide a good coating.

 

[tltaylor22]

I powder coated all my brackets and aluminum parts on my 2f and it has held up well. I painted the block with a high end engine paint but have not been impressed with it. I used just some AutoZone available header paint which looked good for a week until I plowed through a local mud hole a bunsh of times. Little did I know there was a lot of red clay in the mud which then baked onto the manifold and has been on there for the last 5 years and wont come off.

 

[C6H12O6]

I have also used the VHT high temp engine paint with mixed results. I did the exhaust manifold in black and the intake in chrysler blue on my old slant six Duster. The black on the exhaust held up fine, but the blue on the intake and block got a caramel color after about six months. The black looked pretty good for over a year, but did eventually start to look old and worn. No flaking problems, but not really a great long term solution.

 

[MoGas]

I use products from Eastwood Company.


Dave

 

[hoser]

Also, I recall there was a product on the market designed to coat exhaust manifolds that purports to keep heat in and flowing through them (vs radiating the heat into the engine bay). Anyone know of this stuff?

Are you talking about ceramic coating or jet-hot coating?

 

[LX_TREME]

Just the manifolds and engine parts? Aww.. C'mon how bout more than just that

 

[Tools R Us]

My exhaust has a nice baked on mud finish, is it as good as ceramic?

 

[IdahoDoug]

Hmm, sounds like even some pretty good stuff doesn't have real durability then. Was thinking it would be fun to detail the engine bay a bit next week when I put the 93's HG on but maybe not. Don't want it to end up looking hokey after another decade or so. Thanks to all for the information and input.

DougM

 

[PabloVTA]

I rebuilt a 22RE in my 89 pickup, I painted the headers with stuff that promised it'd last.

Waste of perfectly good cash, time and effort.

But hey! The dip stick tube stayed painted!

Just get custom Ceramic headers welded up....no need for paint! and while yer at it, have him make me a set for my '94!