Powder-coat exhaust manifold

Jim Kilday

Terry Harkin is two/three weeks away from finishing the rebuild of the engine for my '46 C8Cpe.



I would like to powder coat the exhaust manifold but the local powder coat guy says he won't do it because he only heats it to 400 F. and it needs to be at least 600 degrees F.



Who can do this right? I would appreciate your input.



Jim Kilday

50C8DAN

My local powder coat guy also tried to coat exhaust manifolds with a variety of different powders to no avail and won't do them anymore. However I would recommend Jet Hot, they have a good reputation if you want to go that way:



http://www.jet-hot.com/



I used a coating from Bill Hirsch last year on my Studebaker exhaust and it is holding up very well. You will need to sand blast and then take it somewhere to have it baked out, then coat. I used the aerosol version.



http://www.hirschauto.com/departments.asp?dept=13



Eastwood also makes some good coatings as well.

[Deleted User]

My neighbor bakes items in his oven when doing painting and it holds up very well. I'm going to try it on my Dodge project.

Kdancy

Forget the powder coating. I've tried several and none held up. Try

http://www.moorepower.com/ for ceramic coating.

RL Chilton

jsrail wrote:

My neighbor bakes items in his oven when doing painting and it holds up very well. I'm going to try it on my Dodge project.

Household ovens only go to + or - 500-F, which isn't hot enough for headers or exhaust manifolds. Either take it to a powder-coater who has an industrial oven and bakes at higher temperatures or ceramic coating is a great way to go.



If you are less picky, there are extreme-heat paints formulated specifically for exhaust manifolds that are available with a little digging. They hold up pretty well, but won't last as long as the ceramic coating or the high-temp powder-coating on a regular driver.

russmaas

Need to be ceramic coated. Choice of colrs are gray, chrome,glossy, black or satin black. Have all my exhaust coated. good up to 1300F. Cost around $175.00. Can send it to powdercoatingunlimited.com or send to me, they are 20 minutes from me. 2 to3 week turnaround right now, just took one up last week

hudsonguy

I agree that the best finish is ceramic coating as russ points out. Although I have seen poorly applied (maybe too thin?) ceramic coatings burn off in a years' time.



If you prefer to do it yourself and have the time, another more affordable alternative is POR-15 exhaust paint. If it's prepped correctly, in this case you have to start with sandblasting. Then degreasing, etching, one coat of regular POR-15, then two coats of POR-15 exhaust paint. A lot of steps, but you can do it yourself for about $50 within several days. Some people probably think I own stock in POR-15, which I don't, but I've found the stuff to be about as tough a paint as you can find. For my particular Hudson, that's what I'm looking for.



By the way, I've done this with two different exhaust manifolds. Both have about 12,000 miles on them. One looks like the day I painted it, and the other one starting burning off almost right away and is now all surface rust. The difference is I failed to sandblast the one that didn't last.