I posted this in LT1 tech and it's getting nowhere fast. So I thought I would try here. I'm wanting to Jet Hot coat my intake maniflod on my next car. I was wondering since the coating is meant to keep heat in on headers, would it also keep heat inside the intake and hurt performance any ? Also, would the coating take to iceing at the track very well for cooling ? Thanks guys!!

 

There wouldn't be much point in coating your LT1 intake. Like you mentioned, it'll retain the heat internally. The only positive would be that your intake would be cool to the touch after about 5 minutes. As for icing before running, it wouldn't hold any drastic effects in the way you're thinking it would. You'd have to drop the internal temperature of the intake by quite a bit in order to "theorize" the coating effect of the intake (keeping that cooler air internal) Don't misread, icing your intake prior to running or dynoing is a great idea and will generally work. I'm just saying that coating your intake won't hold that cooler air long enough to have any large effects on increase in hp/tq.

just my $.02

 

If I were trying to make a case for thermal barrier coated intake manifolds it'd look something like this...

·higher temperature intake charge = less hp

·convective heat transfer occurs between inlet charge and all pipes and boundaries leading to the combustion chamber.

·lowering the temperature in pipes and boundaries = less temperature transfered to intake charge

So, if this is all true, anything that lowers the temperature of the intake or intake tract will lower air temperatures and add horsepower.
Intake temperatures are a product of conductive heat transfer and radiation. So a thermal barrier coating looks like a good way to keep heat out of the intake. On a carb intake you have fuel, which cools the intake (latent heat of vaporization). Don't have much of that with a port injection setup so the intake needs as much help as it can get.

Swain does a thermal barrier coating on the underside and a dispersant coating on top. I have this on my intake manifold and it seems to work real well. Went this route after asking myself the same questions you are and breaking it down to simple laws of physics etc.. No degree required.

-Mindgame

 

so after all of that, do you support a jet-hot coated intake? I personally don't, but the thermal barrier coating on the botton and the "dispersant" coating on the top seems to make sense...

 

Jet-hot is a thermal barrier coating.

Anything that helps in keeping heat out of the manifold is a good thing IMO. That was the point I was trying to get across in all that.

-Mindgame

 

So one more question...what abot powder coating. Would that trap heat in at all ? If so, I'll just stick with the jet hot idea.

 

A high gloss (highly reflective) surface would make for good radiative heat reflection but it wouldn't do anything much for conductive transfer (heads and block to the intake). You'd probably get about the same results from a polished intake although powder is gonna be cheaper.

The TBC coating would be the most effective IMO.

-Mindgame

 

I had my intake manifold ceramic coated on the outside only. I don't think that they will coat it on the inside. From what I understand is that in case the coating was to start coming off, of coarse, it will go into the engine, I may be wrong on that. I think that my intake looks good. I also thought about having it powder coated but I figured it I was going to pay the money, I would rather have the ceramic coating. I also had my water pump along with the accessory bracket that holds the alternator and power steering pump done. Then of coarse I had to get a chrome alternator to go along with that and my polished aluminum valve covers, throttle body, vortech elbow and fan shroud. On the other hand, it takes you over, might want to think against it! HA

 

n2oblkz do you have any pics of your intake by chance ?

 

No, I don't. Well, I do but I don't have any way of posting them. Sorry.

 

There are a few pictures of a coated intake on this page...

http://www.pbmotorsports.com/coating_pictures.htm

That's your typical ceramic thermal barrier coat used on headers.

-Mindgame

 

I wish I could Jet hot coat my whole car