FAVORITE EXHAUST PAINT

[mbouse]

anyone care to share what works on cast iron exhaust manifolds to pretty them up?

I'd like to sand blast and paint the 4-2-1 that is going on the '78 BEFORE i put it on the car.

i have secured a test pipe, and will be painting that too.

i was thinking of the eastwood manifold and pipe paint. is this stuff worth the $30 ??

[So Cal Mark]

why not get the manifold ceramic plated?

[mdrburchette]

I'm with Mark on this. Ceramic coat it and forget it.

[mbouse]

i'm up for that. what is involved, and where do i go?

fill me in.

what about the down pipe, same treatment? or should that be painted?

the mrs. is getting anxious for me to get her '78 up to snuff.

[jprisbe]

Another option if you decide to go with paint

From a Triumph forum:
Seymour Cast Blast manifold paint is a wonderful product.
One spray will do your whole manifold and it won't rust off.
Amazing product for about $10.

http://home.earthlink.net/~seymour_syc/cast.htm

[mdrburchette]

$10 is cheap enough! Other than looking good for a long time, another benefit of ceramic coating the manifold is the decreased temperature in the engine bay.
I sent mine to Airborn. It cost about $100 with shipping. There's probably a company near you but I doubt it will be ready in time for the FFO!

[mbouse]

Not for the Freak Out. Will try the cast blast stuff. thanks all.

[mbouse]

Got my $12 can of spray paint last night, and proceeded to dig out the 4-2-1 from beneath the growing pile of spares. That’s $4.50 for paint, and $7.50 for shipping. Seymour of Sycamore INC, Cast Blast.

Fortunately, with a little WD-40, the heat shield came off the manifold relatively easily. Grabbed the sand blaster and started in. Years of accumulated grime, oil, and rust disappeared easily. First the heat shield, then the manifold, after protecting the machined surfaces with some masking tape. The down pipe needed solvent cleaning, no sand needed. I am really happy that this heat shield does not have any extra holes, or gizmos cut into or hanging from it. It is just a straight heat shield.

Grabbed the recently acquired cat eliminator pipe (from Bruce’s) and all four parts went to the paint booth. O.K., I don’t have a booth, I have saw horses in the back yard; so sue me! The non-CFC spray bomb paint went on just fine. I did not believe my eyes when the manifold covered in one coat. Of course, I applied two coats to all four parts before the lights went out in the spray booth for the evening. Looks just like new grey iron castings. I should know, after 14 years in a foundry.

Then I proceeded to address the existing exhaust. Of course, this is exhausting work……but someone has to do it. The old heat shield and exhaust manifold came off very easily. Some one has been here before me, the nuts were easy to remove. Yup, the cat has ½” exhaust nuts, and cobbled up metric bolt heads. I anticipate that the OEM cat will be empty when I finally get it off the car. Several English curse words later, I managed to get three of the seven required bolts removed from down under. Tonight I will try Italian cursing and see how much further I get. I can already see that at least one of the four remaining bolts will need to be cut off.

Thus far, I am satisfied with the paint product; only severe testing will prove whether or not it stands up to the intense heat generated by the overpowering 1755cc engine it will be attached to. That, of course, will be after I receive and install the brand new 32/36 DFEV Weber Carburetor from Pierce Manifolds. Eventually, we will be looking at a stainless muffler from Danny’s. I keep reminding Missy that she needs to sweet talk Danny next week at the FFO, and see if he’ll cut her a deal.

I am now wondering if my wife is up to the challenge of being the test driver?

[Tappy]

why not get the manifold ceramic plated?

where can you get this done ? sounds effective and heat resistend , anyone has a picture of this ? And while where @ it can someone show and tell the difference between a 4-1 and a 4-2-1 exhoust manifold ?

thx

[mbouse]

i am glad this post got resurfaced. as a follow up to the paint....worked fine on the stock heat shield, but the exhaust manifold and downpipe WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY

[Curly]

Agreed !! I have yet to find a paint that will stand up to manifold temps without discolouring, letting the rust through or burning off over the longer period. Ceramic coating is effective in keeping the rust at bay, but my experience over the last 10 years of using it on various applications is that it will still discolour slightly. It's also quite expensive when compared to paints.

[ventura ace]

This is copied from a recent post that I replied to on the Mira Forum, regarding this topic. I have been happy with high temp barbecue paint. It has discolored from semi glossy black to dull grey, but it looks good to me, and sure beats rust!

T. J. wrote:
: In a fit of stupidity (and laziness for not looking at the label), I used
: standard hi-temp paint for barbecue grills to paint my exhaust manifold. It's
: only rated to 1200 degrees and I know that exhaust gas temps could get as high
: as 1600 - 1700 degrees, but I'm not sure what the manifold surface temps would
: be. Does anyone know if this is would be a big concern and I should send it
: back to get it stripped?

T.J.,
It may work out OK. That is exactly what I did for mine. I used the high temp
barbecue paint, per somebody's recommendation. It started out as a semi-glossy
black color, and settled into a grey color after several hundred miles, as it
became 'seasoned'. Here is a photojournal of the same exhaust manifold, over
time, on 3 different engines:

2-9-03, 1438cc restored engine, 192250 miles (freshly painted manifold)
http://tinyurl.com/yru5ez

10-6-03, on 1608cc restored engine, 192950 miles (about 700 miles after paint)
http://tinyurl.com/2admuz

11-28-03, same 1608cc, 194,500 miles (about 2,250 miles after paint)
http://tinyurl.com/yud7hr

3-22-08, 1.8L engine, 205200 miles (about 13,000 miles after paint)
http://tinyurl.com/ytfyrm
Same picture, photoshopped a little brighter contrast (and radiator cap cleaned
up!): http://tinyurl.com/2grw8a
Anyway, you get the idea. It turned Grey early on, and has stayed that way
since. Sorry, but I've long forgotten exactly what paint I used, since it was
a few years ago, but I remember getting it from Home Depot, I think.

Alvon
'70 124 spider, modified 1.8L engine

[Tappy]

I went some forumshopping too

i nicked this of another forum :

http://www.fordmuscle.com/forums/tech-e ... paint.html

little summary :

They used a HIGH HEAT PAINT WITH CERAMIC , thing is he backed the paint for more resistance , also the ceramic would guide the heat better ?

he concludes with :

a buddy of mine did his and they are still silver after 2 years. If you do not bake them they will discolor/peal in a couple months! so the baking is what makes the high temp paint cure properly.

the paint (Dupli-Color® High Heat Paint with Ceramic) is only 5.99$, and comes in 6 colors ; so worth trying ?

edit : found some High heat resistance paint in the boatindustry

Epifanes Aluminium HR, heatresistance tot 1000° C.or 1832°F maybey that would stick ? only in aluminium color the manual is in dutch but i claims to be for use on manifolds it costs 8.5€ 1/2 l ( do your own conversions if you like to know )

http://www.epifanes.com/ probably need to send them a mail for the paint as i dont find it back in their catalogue

http://www.scheepsverf.com/pdffiles/epi ... ndboek.pdf description in dutch on page 8

remark : they also advise to heat op the painted piece for baking in the paint and make it hold

[mdrburchette]

why not get the manifold ceramic plated?

where can you get this done ? sounds effective and heat resistend , anyone has a picture of this ? And while where @ it can someone show and tell the difference between a 4-1 and a 4-2-1 exhoust manifold ?

thx

Tappy, look at Curly's 4-2-1 exhaust manifold. It has 4 runners coming in and two pipes coming out. the 4-1 only lets one come out.
As far as using paints on the exhaust manifold, why bother? Like Curly's, mine has lost it's gloss over the years, but I will probably never have to worry with it again and the heat reduction from the exhaust manifold is a plus. I prefer to spend the extra money initially and do it right vs visiting the same problem time and time again. If I had known there were stainless steel exhaust systems, I'd have bitten the bullet and installed that too!

[Tappy]

why not get the manifold ceramic plated?

where can you get this done ? sounds effective and heat resistend , anyone has a picture of this ? And while where @ it can someone show and tell the difference between a 4-1 and a 4-2-1 exhoust manifold ?

thx

Tappy, look at Curly's 4-2-1 exhaust manifold. It has 4 runners coming in and two pipes coming out. the 4-1 only lets one come out.
As far as using paints on the exhaust manifold, why bother? Like Curly's, mine has lost it's gloss over the years, but I will probably never have to worry with it again and the heat reduction from the exhaust manifold is a plus. I prefer to spend the extra money initially and do it right vs visiting the same problem time and time again. If I had known there were stainless steel exhaust systems, I'd have bitten the bullet and installed that too!

so ... i have the same as culy's 4-2-1 exhaust thats already great , can someone tell me where to get the manifold ceramic coated ? I did some googling but cant find it , also a price estimate would be fine Anyway does it make a difference performanse wise to get them coated , i mean the heat reduction you get from a ceramic coated vs a painted one ? or is it just cosmetics ?