Ceramic Coating

I was reading my copy of Total Impreza the last few days and kept going back to an article on ceramic coating of exhaust components.

One of the guys on TTS had started a thread which I posted on, but thought I should also post my findings here also.

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Just out of interest I called Zircotec today and spoke to the Technical Sales Manager.

What they do is slightly different to CamCoat / Black Performance who use a ceramic paint, which is good, but more aesthetically tailored.

Zircotec actually melt particles of ceramic and plasma spray it to items, which gives higher performance results vs paint. As such, their stuff is standard on Lambo's, Koenigsegg's and Zonda's etc

Using a thermocouple they've seen direct temp readings reduce by 200 degrees vs a bare pipe and ambient temps under the bonnet reduce by 30-40%

In direct testing to heatwrap it was proven to be more effective and the main bonus is that it will outlast wrap many times over altho it was commented that heat wrap is pretty good when new. The ceramic however does not deteriorate and does not need to be re-applied. Hence the cost effectiveness in the long term.

Turnaround time is quoted at approx 10 days but is often less than that.

Typically the cost is worked out based on £40 per ft of pipe, but they are open to talking about a group buy. If they got more than 5 components to do, they'd consider as much as 15% off that price.

I'm not offering my services here as I cant commit myself like that at the moment (plus I'm not a techie so cant advise any more than the notes I took from the call), so dont ask me too many questions, I'm just trying to be helpful.

ambient temps under bonnet 40 degrees less, nee way, did they do the test on a stationary car then maybe yes but certainly not when on the move

Read and digest for yourselves : http://www.zircotec.com/page/home/1

Case studies at the bottom of the page are interesting, including a Litchfield Impreza : http://www.zircotec.com/casestudy/impreza_type25/37/10


Andy - I totaly bow to your knowledge of these cars, I was just trying to follow up on a point of interest. I'll let the experts do the talking, I was just introducing the story

ceramic coaing is teh best way for heat reduction heatwrap is good but, looks shit and falls off after 12 months

I'm thinking of getting that new uppipe done. Could be an interesting test case for us.

No need to do it for a road car mate

There are better ways to spend the money.

Its a cosmetic/spec list thing to do on a road car...

....the coloured ones for FMIC pipes are nice

Andyg wrote:

ceramic coaing is teh best way for heat reduction heatwrap is good but, looks shit and falls off after 12 months

If you buy the crap stuff, DEI wrap stay on as long as you have the product thats why it costs so much

stevebt wrote:

Andyg wrote:

ceramic coaing is teh best way for heat reduction heatwrap is good but, looks shit and falls off after 12 months

If you buy the crap stuff, DEI wrap stay on as long as you have the product thats why it costs so much

DEi does the same mate over a period.

Ceramic heat Coating does work and defo DOES make a differenc on a road car, any way of getthng heat to stay INSIDE the exhaust is a good thing. Speaking to Andrew Carr today when he was Mapping some cars for me, he Said that even temps on the move do rise in the engine bay, and that Ceramic coating is the most noticable way of keeping the temps down, he says that heatwrap also works very well BUT as we all know it can be a ball achne, Smokes, Absorbes Oil if you have leaks, smells till its sorted and rots off too

agree Andy, Heat wrap is a total waste of money in my opinion, it induces moisture so stinks and you get steam on start up, even the expensive stuff falls off after 6 months on a road car, its also quite dangerous on the headers of a Subaru, the reason why is it can cause fire as it will soak up any oil or power steering fluid that leaks or is spilt, holding this against headers that can get up to 600 degs c isn't a good idea and can and does burst into flames.
the standard heat shields are the best in my opinion for standard headers.

Aftermarket headers are best left alone as trapping heat in them can cause them to overheat and fail. this mostly happens around the collector.

agree with jonny, its too expensive for almost zero gains, its another one of them things thats sounds great in theory, been there done it, sorry but imo its not worth it, some half decent heat wrap on the up pipe is all that is needed