Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint, Updated after break-in

[Tooky]

While I have my heads off and manifolds out, I'm having the machine shop surface the flanges and shot-blast the cast iron manifolds clean of rust, in preparation for me to spray them with "VHT FlameProof NuCoat Cast Iron Gray" # SP998 high temp ceramic paint. VHT claims that with proper prep & curing, the paint will last a long time, and that they have customers "all the time" with headers painted 5-10 years ago and still lasting.

Doing this on a turbo manifold obviously makes it a more challenging environment. The can claims "1300-2000*F". I guess I'll find out.

Anyone else have experience with this or similar products? Did you do all the recommended prep? I know I could drop $200 and do Ceramic coating but all the places want 3 weeks to do it and nobody seems to offer a normal gray color in high temp, either.

 

[nallj92]

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

i used the same stuff and it works good, after abour 3 years it starting to wear out a bit but for the price and ease of application i would put on a good couple coats and it should last pretty long, i think i just put a single coat of it on.

 

[4C FED]

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

I've never had a hi-temp paint last "a long time".

When I was going to run stock manifolds I had all the exhaust stuff ceramic coated with a color they called titanium.
I think it's the closest you'll get to cast iron look.

 

[CAMSTY]

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

Josh, I just did my manifolds, crossover and new exhaust housing with VHT 13000* flat aluminium

heated them till they were glowing with a tiger torch (to clean them) then glass bead/aluminum oxide blasted them, then heated them again right before paint so the paint would bake on.

Were still dressing the motor so I can't tell you how their gonna hold up..........

 

[Tooky]

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

Crap!! While I was staring at your gorgeous "Titanium" manifolds, I just realized I was going to enlarge the 2 outside bolt-holes so the exhaust manifolds aren't such a MoFo to R&R, but I forgot to do it before sending the manifolds to the shop to get blasted clean. Now, if I do it afterwards, the cutting oil and shavings will contaminate the virgin surface. Any ideas???

Can you safely elongate those holes without causing the manifold to crack? Mine are SO far off from lining up it's outrageous...

 

[nello]

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

I've never had a hi-temp paint last "a long time".

When I was going to run stock manifolds I had all the exhaust stuff ceramic coated with a color they called titanium.
I think it's the closest you'll get to cast iron look.

Rick, those look sick. What shop did that for you? I'm ready now, remember how much it cost? thx

 

[4C FED]

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

It's a place in Rancho Cordova, Perfect-It.

2 manifolds
x-over
PTE DP
2 exhaust housings
4 spark plug heat shields
2 half circle brackets that hold center section to exhaust housing

$360
That was early last year. I would expect a price increase since the cost of everything has gone up.
http://www.mapquest.com/maps/11496+refinement+road+rancho+cordova+ca/
http://perfectitinc.com/

 

[Paul Huizenga]

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

I did my manifolds and the hot side of the turbo... Can't remember exactly what I used, but I'll try to dig up that update and get it on my site this weekend.

 

[ty166]

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

Crap!! While I was staring at your gorgeous "Titanium" manifolds, I just realized I was going to enlarge the 2 outside bolt-holes so the exhaust manifolds aren't such a MoFo to R&R, but I forgot to do it before sending the manifolds to the shop to get blasted clean. Now, if I do it afterwards, the cutting oil and shavings will contaminate the virgin surface. Any ideas???

Can you safely elongate those holes without causing the manifold to crack? Mine are SO far off from lining up it's outrageous...

just pick up one of these ,

http://www.lislecorp.com/tool_detail.cfm?detail=65

they are cheap and make doing gm exhaust manifolds a walk in the park , best $30.00 i ever spent.

 

[It's just a six]

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

Crap!! While I was staring at your gorgeous "Titanium" manifolds, I just realized I was going to enlarge the 2 outside bolt-holes so the exhaust manifolds aren't such a MoFo to R&R, but I forgot to do it before sending the manifolds to the shop to get blasted clean. Now, if I do it afterwards, the cutting oil and shavings will contaminate the virgin surface. Any ideas???

Can you safely elongate those holes without causing the manifold to crack? Mine are SO far off from lining up it's outrageous...

You do not use cutting oils to cut,drill,or mill cast iron.

 

[Syclone#892]

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

That lisle tool will only work on the one side of the manifold since they are for a small block. I have used a small bolt with some washers and a nut attached and wedge it in place then turned the nut. Not fun but it worked for me.

 

[turboj91]

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

Tooky, depending on the enviorment (specifically humidity) on the day you will be painting, you might want to take a torch (even a hand held canister type) and heat the manifolds to burn off any moisture from the surface for the first coat. As previously mentioned, it also helps to bake the finish on.

 

[Tooky]

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

You do not use cutting oils to cut,drill,or mill cast iron.

?? How do you keep the bit from overheating and getting dull then? I have a can of CRC brand "Cutting Oil" and it says right on it, for "Ferrous Metals".

What I ended up doing was cutting it dry and it did seem to dull my $25 burr pretty good. :roll:

As for the exhaust manifold spreader, of course I have one of those (every SyTyer who's pulled his manifolds probably does) but it still doesn't even come close to lining up the holes on my manifolds.

Here's how things turned out:

BEFORE:

AFTER: Bare Manifolds freshly baked and shot-blasted with steel shot 12 hours ago:

Oh baby!! Sooo much better than the rusty units I brought into the machine shop! I can't believe they only charged me $25 to do this including surfacing the manifold flanges. The stock sealing surface was atrocious, now they are minty smooth and ready for some killer stainless steel exhaust manifold gaskets.

Here's what they looked like BEFORE:

It's no surprise they leaked like the Titantic!! That rust/corrosion becomes one with the manifold.

I used a carbide porting burr in a die grinder to open up the troublesome outer manifold bolt-holes. Then I hit em with brake cleaner followed by a good wipedown of Acetone to get them absolutely bone dry & clean. Finally I sprayed them with VHT # SP998 NuCoat Cast Iron Gray "1300-2000*F" Silica Ceramic spray paint ($8/can).

The color of this paint absolutely kicks ass!! It was SUCH a dead match for the real cast iron, that it was nearly impossible to tell which areas had already received paint coverage.

Here's how they turned out: :rock: :woot: :thumbsup: :drool: :syty:

If you look carefully in the image above, you can see how I elongated the outer bolt holes.

I baked them per the instructions for 30 min at 250, cooldown 30 min, bake 30 min at 400, cooldown 30 min. I will leave the final cure for when they are bolted to the truck.

 

[mattw]

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

Cool.. I'm anxious to see how this stuff holds up.


-Matt

 

[It's just a six]

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

I used to work @ a machine shop,plus my friend owns a cylinder head shop.They never use cutting oil,& they cut seats all the time,cast iron comes off as big chips, hard to explan if you have not seen the process.
You allways cut cast iron dry,no lube,espcially if you are tapping cast iron,if you use lube,that is a good way to break off a tap,oil makes it not cut good & grap/stick your tap.

Was your burr solid carbide,or was it HSS?.
Reasom probably it dulled it because of all the heat cycles & making the cast iron harder?

 

[Sportmachines]

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

Crap!! While I was staring at your gorgeous "Titanium" manifolds, I just realized I was going to enlarge the 2 outside bolt-holes so the exhaust manifolds aren't such a MoFo to R&R, but I forgot to do it before sending the manifolds to the shop to get blasted clean. Now, if I do it afterwards, the cutting oil and shavings will contaminate the virgin surface. Any ideas???

Can you safely elongate those holes without causing the manifold to crack? Mine are SO far off from lining up it's outrageous...

Never mind I posted before I read all the posts.

 

[Quickstop [UK]]

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

What condition are the exhaust ports on the heads in? Are you getting them sorted as well?

What exhaust gaskets are you going to use? Would you now say that the Permatex Ultra didn't do the job?

I went through this about 18 months ago - it seems the only way to seal up the exhaust with confidence is by machining as you have done.

Awesome work - nice headers.

Mark

 

[4C FED]

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

It's a place in Rancho Cordova, Perfect-It.

2 manifolds
x-over
PTE DP
2 exhaust housings
4 spark plug heat shields
2 half circle brackets that hold center section to exhaust housing

$360
That was early last year. I would expect a price increase since the cost of everything has gone up.
http://www.mapquest.com/maps/11496+refinement+road+rancho+cordova+ca/
http://perfectitinc.com/

I picked up the PT51 turbine housing & 2 C-brackets that hold the center section & housing together last week, 140 F-ing dollars to have those 3 parts coated. :tdown: And they were brand new. It's not like they were super crusty or greasy. They were spotless.
Dang, I thought more like $90. I'm glad I'm just about done with having what I need powdercoated.

 

[Tooky]

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint

OK now that I had some time to break them in with some 20 PSI 3rd gear romps.. First, a look at the BEFORE:

Here's how they look installed, fresh painted, NOT fired yet:

Now, here's a look after 10 WOT runs, a couple weeks, maybe 100 miles:

So far I'm very happy. They did turn lighter and "chalky" near the hottest areas. But still WAY better than the solid rust they used to be! I'll certainly continue to monitor the paint in the future but after the first 1-2 WOT runs they stopped "smelling" and changing colors so I think this is it. I had read some posts on TurboBuick about guys who started their cars and the paint just flaked right off.. All I can imagine is that they didn't do anywhere near the proper prep like I did (baking, shotblasting, acetone, curing, etc.)

 

[CAMSTY]

Re: Painting Exhaust Manifolds with High Temp Paint, Updated after break-in

Cool, looks like they will stand up for a while, hopefully a long while!

My motor is going in right now, so I'll have to wait a little bit to see my results......I used VHT 13000* flat aluminium.

Keep us updated, I will do the same.