Engine and Transmission Tech

I want to ceramic coat my headers here in the shop, since I have a bead blaster and an oven to cook them in. So all I need now is the coating material itself. Anybody got a good source for that?

JB

Jim, here's a link to a place that sells an aluminum based header coating that might be what you want. [www.nomorerust.com]
Here's another source I found [www.techlinecoatings.com]
and another. [www.caswellplating.com]
The last one has a good reputation for supplying home plating products for restorers as well.

Jim and clan, I use "Techline" coatings, Ph# (951) 304-0834, also in Texas. They make about (30) different coatings. "Cermachrome" wants to have the surface, sanblasted for proper adhesion, and will be dull/grayish, untill polished. Good Luck, roverman.

These guys in Detroit did mine for $240.....
[www.exoticcoatings.com]
Your choice of high temp coating can be critical - if you decide on a typical 11-1200F capable coating (generally the shiny silver finish) be warned that any lean or rich engine running condition will quickly render the finish a dull grey (as temp limit is exceeded). As long as your engine is not run abnormally lean or rich, you shouldn't have an issue.
There is a higher temp coating available (1400F as I recall) but is a less appealing duller silver finish.

Thanks guys, that all sounds familiar from old preliminary research I did a year or so ago. I guess I'll go with the Caswell Chromex. Seems pretty typical of that type of coating and is probably what the headers were originally coated with a couple decades back. Little over a hundred bucks a quart which would leave plenty to play with for other things. Still have to run conduit to the oven and build a box to sit on the open oven door to make the oven bigger. Have to buy new glass beads too. I made a vacuum blower to suck the dust out of my bead blaster cabinet, (the exhaust runs straight up 16 ft and then down to the blower to let gravity separate the beads from the dust) but the beads are so fine they are now scattered all over the yard. Guess I need the coarse beads. Caswell suggests sharp media so maybe I'll load the cabinet with blasting sand from the portable unit for the final cleanup just before applying the paint. My tune for the 215 should be pretty close for the 340 provided I buy the right sized injectors so dialing it in ought to be straightforward enough and lean/rich won't be as bad as starting from scratch. Maybe this time the coating will last a few years before it starts flaking off. When I originally built these headers and sent them off for coating there were only a couple places in the country doing it. The place I sent them to sent them back with the instructions that final cure would be effected by exhaust heat so obviously they did not bake them. From what I've seen, even the worst coatings done today are much better so I have good hopes for the outcome.

JB

I went with the Techline Cermachrome. I liked their claims on the salt spray test. Got a quart of it here and hope to be ready to paint and bake by the end of the week... if I can find the right breaker to hook up the wiring for the oven. Someone on here had an idea for an oven cavity extender, Jim or Fred maybe, so I used that and just finished building a box today:







Looks like it should work real well. Its a self cleaning oven so it should be able to go up to around 700 degrees I think. Probably should check that out though. They say you can bead blast and steel wool the headers instead of tumbling. I may try that, or, I think I have enough parts to build a vibratory polisher out of an oil drum and some conveyer belting to line it. Wonder how pea gravel would work as a polishing medium?

JB

my stock oven took an mgb block, looks like your's takes a really big turkey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jim,
Don't show that thing to your wife!
Once they figure out that you know how the gastronomic laboratory equipment works your doomed.
I had a close call myself, but the lovely Lynne thinks that the old stove is for storage.
Cheers
Fred

Looks like the Long Wheel Base version.

It's way past too late for that Fred. I blew it going in. Somehow a diet of cold pizza and red apples (the only things she kept in her fridge) just wasn't going to cut it compared to what I was feeding my then teenaged son, so I was doomed from the start. He'd have ratted me out in a New York minute. On the plus side, she did eventually learn not to burn water, and has even made a few things that were edible. One or two even good. So it's getting better. After I die she may even be able to take over full time. But I gotta say this, she just learned to make cake balls,... man I swear, I could live on them things.

JB

One of my customers just asked me to haul away an old electric stove. My first thought was powder coating. I'll set it up next to the dishwasher I use as a parts cleaner in the garage.

I followed the links above and was interested to find the Techline thermal barrier product

www.techlinecoatings.com/Engine.htm

In my 4 cylinder MGB I am running 10.5:1 compression and get quite a bit of pinking when trying using a reasonably wide open throttle in 3rd or 4th at 1500 to 2500 rpm. My timing has been set up for maximum power as I compete in the car. However I also like to use the car on the street were the low down flexability is good. So I am tinking of using Tech Line's CBC1 Powerkote on the top of the pistons and the combustion chamber walls in the head.

Has anyone used that product? How did you get on?

David, I like this product. You "must" choose for high humidity or not,(ambient conditions for spraying).It will NOT preventa a stock 4.0 Rover piston from "torching" at 20 lbs of turbo boost ! Good Luck, roverman.