I just ordered some of the Satin Black 2000 degree ceramic Exhaust Manifold paint from Tech Line Coatings. I'm going to take the exhaust manifold off my 84 2.5 , Sand Blast it down wash it in Acetone and air brush this coating on. Supposedly it will reduce the under hood temperature quite a bit.. It seems a little to good to be true for a $20.00 four ounce bottle of coating but they say it works. I will let everyone know how it turns out and I will take pictures as I go. My only worry it getting the Exhaust Manifold bolts and the header pipe connector bolts out with out snapping them.. I read a lot on the forum and it seems I should soak the bolts down with WD-40 a couple of days before.. I will keep everyone posted.

The stuff works!!!! I have used if on a friends Turbo and it made a noticable difference.!!!! It is the same stuff the professionals use.

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4.9 Caddy in Garage! Car in Driveway! ACK!

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http://home.cfl.rr.com/fierose
Central Florida Fieros
http://www.centralfloridafieros.org

Interesting! Other than reducing the heat, how else has it helped? Anything that can make my '86 a little better I'm willing to try.

Soak the bolts with PB Blaster. It is the best for this job. Be very liberal on the head pipe bolts. I have tried to remove 3 different ones. The back bolt on all three broke before it came out. Might as well buy new bolts before you start. Did I mention I have a set to sell? LMK if your interested.

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Well, I just took the manifold off with no problems at all!!!! I can't belive it !.. The bolts came right out. The worst two bolts where the Head pipe to Exhaust manifold but they wern't to bad either. I also sand blasted the manifold today.. What a messy job, It looks good though..
The manifold it self looks pretty good. There is only one flaw but It has probably been there for a while. One of the welds on the flanges that bolt to the head looks like it had a couple of air bubbles in it when they welded it at the factory. I couldn't see any light or feel any air through the inperfections so I am assuming that they have always been there and are only on the surface (I hope)...
I havn't received my ceramic paint yet .. I hope tomorrow so I can put everything back together..

quote Originally posted by black Fiero SE: I just ordered some of the Satin Black 2000 degree ceramic Exhaust Manifold paint from Tech Line Coatings.

How about a little experiment?

Go ahead and poke fun. Too much beer? Not enuf beer?

Anyways. Measure temp rise over 5 minutes coated and uncoated?

I was gonna do this later. this setup is about 5 min work BTW.

I don't understand what that does? Were you able to test this coating with that set up? If so what results did you find? Did it work?

What I am suggesting is a length of tubing run through a closed container with a thermometer in the container. Using a heat source (hair dryer) to heat the inside of the tube.

Measure the temp at start and then remeasure the temp at the end of a set time, and then coat the tubing and perform the experiment again.

I did this with my cheesy setup and measured a start tem of 87 and an end temp of 105.

The hair dryer might work as a heat source but the closed container should be longer to allow for more heat transfer.

A heat gun with a longer container would provide more "resolution".

[This message has been edited by DanielKJenkins (edited 08-08-2004).]

Thats a good idea..

Well, I coated my manifold tonight and bolted it back on. Only problem is , I must not have put my o ring donut on right and I have an exhaust leak. I am going to unbolt the pipe tomorrow and hope I can still use the gasket. Is there a trick to putting one on? I did a V6 O ring with no problem but obviously I messed up on my 4 cyl.

I am having problems with my Doughnut gasket too on my 2.5. Wondr if there is a trick GM did not tell us.

I got mine on last night. What I was doing .. I was setting the gasket in the flange part of the Cat. Pipe. What I did to get it right was had my father go under the car an pull on the cat. pipe which gave me some space. I then went in from the top of the engine and slide the donut on the exhaust manifold part of the fitting. It slid on perfect nice and tight to the top of the manifold part of the fitting. It stayed there while I went back under the car and put the 2 bolts in. If I did not explain myself to good send me an email and I will try to explain better.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by black Fiero SE:

I got mine on last night. QUOTE]

How do you feel about the coating? As good as advertised?

Well, To be truthful I haven't really tested it yet. I got the coating on and then bolted everything up. Started the car and I put the donut gasket in wrong. It was later at night so with the engine being hot from running it I put the donut in the right way the next day. Since then I haven't really driven the car do to the weather (rain). Tomorrow I am going to the Kick HIll swap meet in Ct. and then when I get home am going to run the car for a bit and see if I notice a difference in temperature. I promise after I run it tomorrow I will give you my opinion.
The stuff went on easy and I think I applied it correctly. I just don't see how such a thin layer of coating could make a noticeable difference. I will post again tomorrow night with the results.

I found this chart while researching the Black Satin paint.

Im interested to know how well it works on the Fiero too.

Ok... Here we go. I gave the car a good drive tonight. After all the Liquid Wrench burned off (I sprayed plenty on the exhaust manifold bolts) I drove the car for about 30 minutes. When I pulled it in my driveway I popped the truck and put my hand directly over the exhaust manifold (without touching it of course) I was about 1/4 inch away. It felt warm from there but it did not make my hand burn or uncomfortable in any way. Now the unfortunate thing is ..... Maybe that's the way it was before I sprayed it too.... I didn't check it like that ( I guess im not a good scientist)... Anybody else with a 2.5 tell me if they can hold there hand about 1/4 inch over their exhaust manifold without any problem I would love to know..
If it turns out this coating did make that type of difference then it worked.
Total price for this

Sandblaster from Sears $50.00
Heat coating paint with shipping $25.00
Sand for blasting $7.00
Acetone $5.00
New gaskets about $10.00
Time involved ??

Total = $97.00

Was it worth the money???? I don't think so.

I wonder... Could I coat the valve cover with this coating??? Would that be a bad thing? Do you want heat to come from the valve cover? Does it disperse heat that way and would I be trapping it in if I coated it with this???

Also TerryV asked "A question just occurred to me... why doesn't the auto industry use this stuff if it helps keep temperatures down in the engine compartment, and supposedly help HP with better flow ??? "

I can only say that there are many things the car makers could do that would be relatively simple that would increase HP or make things run better or longer and they just don't do it.

Coating the valve cover doesn't make sense in that the oil in the motor is cooled somewhat by the valve cover but then again it is only a minor difference

POR15 makes a high temp. that is all but the same called POR20, I can't remember the temp. its good up to but its higher than most engine paints. 1200 degrees I think if not higher?

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Bobby from NW Indiana
86 Fiero GT, Looking to ad a 93 Northstar soon
thespeedshop@sbcglobal.net

I"ve gotten great results with VHT satin silver high temp paint on cleaned sand blasted V6 Fiero manifolds and when sprayed on degreased new exhaust pipes. To my surprise the finish seems to last. It's certainly not as good as the ceramic metallic Jet Hot type coatings but at $6.99 a can and a bit of work, it can't be beat. As for other brands I can't comment as I've not used them. I do not believe that a significant surface temperature can be reduced by adding a thin coat of paint, but painted exhaust manifolds or headers sure look nice and really dress up the engine compartment.

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87GT 3.4 Turbo Best 0-60 5.2 seconds
http://www.turbochargerpower.com/turbo.htm