Thermal Coatings Do They Work?
 

I had mentioned in my post about the Jones camshaft installation that I had also coated my complete intake system with themal coatings. What I had done was to coat the inside of the cold air intake tube, the inside of the plenum, the inside of the runners and the iinside of the intake manifold runners with a ceramic thermal barrier coating like they use on the headers. Also all mating surfaces had the ceramic thermal barrier coating.

I had the outside of the same items coated with a black thermal dispersant coating. Well the lowest my inlet air temperature has been was 91 degrees with my uncoated setup. The reading is taken from the factory location in the plenum. Well driving on the freeway today the plenum temperature settled in at 86 degrees. That would be a full 5 degrees cooler than my previous best. I think on a cool morning drive I will beat that mark.

So I would say yes the coatings do work. Is it enough to be worthwhile to do it? Probably not for most. But if you are looking for that last bit of horsepower than maybe. :)

Re: Thermal Coatings Do They Work?
 

Allen,

Ya hit the nail right on the head. During the early 90s there was some testing I did and found that ya gained a few horsepower for a while. Let me qualify that statment. The exhaust side , combustion chamber, and valve faces ( and back side of the exhaust valve as well) were coated. When the engine was clean (i.e. freshly preped) it made some "extra" power. After some runs, races, fooling around and back on the dyno, the power was decreased. Soot started to build up on the exhaust runner and allowed heat to start soaking in. This was on a carbed dirt track motor, and tuned the best we could.

Great technology for the ultimate in getting that last bit of HP out of the motor, but not for anything that has to run for a season or more with out rebuilding. There are better areas to spend that delta cash for gains.

Tom.

Re: Thermal Coatings Do They Work?
 

they do thermal coatings or paints on computer chip heat sinks i do believe as the coatings help radiate heat away from the surface. SO yes, it should definately help keep the insides cooler and so far its seems it has done that

Re: Thermal Coatings Do They Work?
 

I would say for most the money spent and the horsepower gain it is not worth it unless you are racing and looking for that last horsepower or two.

The going rate is a 1% horsepower gain for every 10 degrees of temperature drop you get. The last time I was on the dyno the lowest my IAT I got was around 108 degrees. The best IAT I have ever recorded on a dyno was also 91 degrees.

I will be on the dyno this Saturday and it will be interesting to see what my IAT will be. I bet there is a solid 5+ horsepower difference between the 91 degree recording and the 108 degree recording. Heck if I get down to 88 degrees that could be a +10 horsepower difference from the last dyno session.

Re: Thermal Coatings Do They Work?
 

a jet hot coated setup would sure look nice tho :) almost polished

I cant wait to hear your results man

Re: Thermal Coatings Do They Work?
 

Orr89RocZ: Actually I had that and that is why the IAT would not go below 108 degrees. Nowhere for the heat to go. So that was costing me some horsepower. The JetHot type coating (ceramic thermal barrier) is what is still on the inside right now. I had the JetHot sandblasted off and replaced with the black thermal dispersant on the outside only.

By the way in my case I thought the cost was worth it as I'm trying to beat VincentZ28 for the local bragging rights. :D

Re: Thermal Coatings Do They Work?
 

A little update: We had our club meeting the last Saturday evening. I was comparing the heat of my tpi themal coated plenum with that of another car that just arrived with the standard factory setup. Using the touch method the coated plenum was quite abit cooler.

You could leave the palm of your hand on my plenum for as long as you wanted. You would not want to do that with the factory setup. So yes the coatings do work but probably are not worth the extra 1 or 2 horsepower for the money spent. ;)

Re: Thermal Coatings Do They Work?
 

interesting thread I was looking to ceramic coat my intake runners and plenum. I was not looking for HP gains but having ceramic coated the headers and seeing a very unexpected improvement in heat dissipation have decided to treat the intake stuff the same way.

so far I can hot lap the car, park it for 20 minutes and wrap my hands on the headers which are usually just warm to the touch by then.

the under the hood temps are also way lower way sooner. The next hot spot is the intake which by comparison is too hot too touch. so i figured i would get it coated as well the reason being improved engine temps is just better for the engine in general.

Re: Thermal Coatings Do They Work?
 

You do not want to have a ceramic coated thermal barrier on the outside. It will only help retain the heat which is good for an exhaust system but not for an intake system. What you want is a thermal barrier on the inside runner walls and plenum. On the outside surface area you want a thermal dispersant to help get rid of the heat.