Just wondering what is the latest on the subject? The idea being to not heat up the air comming into the heads through the plenum and runners.

I would liken it to holding a styrofoam cup insulating the fingers from say hot coffee. There is no transfer of heat to the fingers because of the styrofoam. So if the inside of the plenum and runners could be lined with a thin heat insulating barrier then the air entering the heads would be cooler then without. This would result in more horsepower.

So have heat barrier coatings improved to the point where this is a good thing to do?

 

Coating the insides could potentially reduce your cross-sectional area, given a thick enough coating. And I would imagine that to make a noticeable difference in power, the coating would have to be somewhat thick. I don't see any downsides to having it on the outside of the manifold, though, except it could be pretty ugly looking.

 

Valid point. From what I have read the coating is not very thick. The coatings appear to be a Teflon base and maybe .010' thick. So I don't think it would effect the CSA all that much.

I will be working on my intake system next month and was thinking about the posibilities of coatings. Just want to separate the hype from the facts.

 

Who makes the Teflon coating? I've used Tech Line coatings on exhaust components of several vehicles with good success, but not the intake. Recently, I did some research and a thermal barrier is desired for the intake interior and a thermal dispersant is good for the underside and exterior. It spreads the heat and radiates it away from the metal mass better than raw metal.

 

Last year I visited a local company who is a Dupont/Teflon agent and of course uses Teflon coatings commercially. I found out he also does automotive coatings for some of the local racers here in Southern California. He had some recommendations for what I wanted to do and and the pricing was not bad.

Some if not all the coating people such as Tech Line use Teflon products in some of there coatings. I just want to know what the consenus is on the subject of intake runner coatings. After some more searching today it looks like something I might just do. Just got to get all the information I can.

 

Thanks, keep us posted. I'm in So Cal too. Tech Line coatings can be applied at home. Do the Dupont Teflon coatings require special application guns or heat kilns? Or can they also be applied at home.

 

I think so. The preparation of the metal prior to the coating is one of the big parts to a successfull application. This is something I would not try to do myself. I know my limitations. Hahahaha.

 

The gains you might see from this kind of heat management are small. I would only do it on a max effort engine where I had done all the other many more cost effective power enhancements and still need a few more ponies.

Rich

 

I could be way off base here, but wouldn't coating the intake runners make them smooth enough to hurt laminar flow?

 

Rich, that is about where I'm at. I will have the intake system off one more time for my final mods and was considering it. If I could lower the IAT say 15 degrees it might be worth it. I would be doing the plenum, runners and intake manifold. Being a TPI type system there is a lot of area to heat things up.

About the laminar flow? This is one of the reasons I'm asking the question. I know the coatings are banned for certain types of racing so there must be something to it.

 

I would talk to the folks at Swain Technologies. They are very knowledgable about coatings, into cars, and nice to deal with.

Rich