Ceramic coating and potential applications

[jeff_fohlen90]

I would like to start a discussion and get some views plus nuggets of knowledge regarding the ceramic coating and their benefits to specific components to rotaries, and interested to hear your views.

There are obvious benefits of coating exhaust manifolds, down pipes and headers as they are able to insulate more heat being generated internally and decrease the amount of radiant heat from raising the physical temperature of the component, and subsequently influencing engine air temperatures. The effect is most apparent on motorbike exhausts where there is little to no heat glow compared to bare metal. They are also applicable for turbo housings not to forget mentioning.

It got me thinking what other components in the engine system could benefit from ceramic coating knowing that it is also possible to coat internally to aid in better cooling, but perhaps stretching the ambition further to improve thermal efficiency? I thought of the rotor housings for a second, but convinced myself that it will affect sealing and assembly tolerances, or affect the combustion/ignition cycle in a negative way. But maybe little things like the turbo Y-Pipes, to have them internally coated may keep radiant heat at bay and reduce hot air going through the intake?

Be keen to hear what you guys think.

[mikey-t]

I researched this a lot, ceramic coating is used widely in the industry but not every company offering it is giving you "true" ceramic coating,
Zircotec seem to be the industry leaders and the best at true ceramic coating but even they have issues with discolouration etc.

The other thing to hear in mind is the coating is just that a coating, any overspray in a manifold or turbo etc can flake with heat / age / friction and you do not want a flake migrating anywhere.

I have seen Pistons, valves, exhausts pretty much anything coated to varying qualities, for me ceramic coating should be limited to manifolds and turbos externally only maybe even our inlet manifolds, anything more intensive I would go with a more chemical route such as anodising, ion coating, ESAVD, etc etc,

The other factor is cost, my manifold and another small piece prepped and coated was quoted at just under £500