S Car Go was sending my headers out to Swain this coming week. I was reading some information from Swain and I need to give them a call before the headers are sent.

I have had headers ceramic coated by two other companies in the past. In all my turbo applications the coating has peeled like a snake skin. I was wondering if the same would happen with Swain?

Here is what I found:

"How durable is the coating? It is so durable that you would need to grind it off to remove it and it would take a significant amount of time to grind the coating off in one small area. If you mar the coating with wrenches you tighten up the header to the motor or against the frame rails when you guide the motor into place you will not damage the coating. You can make that area that was marred shiny, but it will not damage the coating or degrade its insulating value.

Swain Tech Coatings does not give White Lightning™ an official “temperature rating” because temperature ratings really mean nothing when dealing with exhaust parts. The melting point of White Lightning™ is over 3,000°F and there are applications where the coating would stay completely intact at temperatures well above temperatures that can be reached on exhaust parts. However, what can damage our coating or any coating, no matter what the “temperature rating” is if the differential of expansion between the base metal and the coating is greater than what any coating can expand. If the base metal does get hot enough to expand more than what a coating can expand, there is the possibility any coating can fracture. Whether the coating is rated for 1,300°, 1,400°, 2,000°F, or in the case of White Lightning™, about 3,000°F, it is possible that a coating will get damaged if your parts get hot enough to glow. If you ask around to those who have had coatings done with temperature ratings, it is easy to find people who will confirm that the temperature ratings really mean little in a real world environment."

We all have seen these headers glow ........ with this knowledge is header wrap the better way to go? I know there can be corrosion issues with header wrap, however with 321 stainless this should not be an issue. I have used header wrap in some past projects.

 

Chad, how about both?

 

I have done both in the past on this car. I have used two different coating companies and in both cases the ceramic coating has come off like a snake sheds it's skin. In fact it looks remarkably similar. I have followed all break in proceedures and it still happened and I could never figure out why and up to now no one has given an explaination.

Swain says if it header metal glows you can damage the ceramic coating and I believe my experiences are what they are referring to as damage. I will be calling them and confirming my suspisions.

 

Chad, I meant both wrap and ceramic coat.
Wouldn't the wraping help to keep the ceramic coat in place?

 

It did not keep the ceramic coating in place on the last set. It separated like a snake molting it's skin. Once a layer of air gets in between the ceramic and metal it loses it's efficiency. My old coating was only about five thousands thick. Swain does theirs fifteen thousands thick.
Either way it isn't much to lose if you lose it.

 

Here is our new schedule from Neil at Performance Developments.

The motor will be assembled and the plenum, throttle bodies, dual injector manifolds and fuel rails will be in place on the motor by March 15, 2010.

The next item will be installing the Link system along with making up the new wiring harness and the CD ignition system. I do not have a schedule for this work at this time.

Following this the motor will be broken in and tuned on the engine dyno and then it will be installed in the car.

 

I should have some pics in about sixteen days.

 

Update?

 

cjv, I saw S-Car-Go updated their website fairly recently... and saw some pics of your car on there.... is your car at the shop now? I happen to be headed there tmrw to drop mine off for some stuff....

 

The body is.

 

Bill,

I called PD today. They are behind schedule. I inquired as to when he believed it would be finished and he asked me to call later today for a better answer.

 

I just got off the phone with Neil. The servo motors for the six 48 mm TB's have been tested and are working well. In addition the CD system has been successfully tested for the pulsed power we were hoping to achieve.

Now the plugs will have enough spark to sustain the 30% more added fuel provided by the dual injectors. Not sure if this is the time to spill the beans, but our compression ratio was raised from 9:4-1 to 10:5-1. No use letting free hp get away from us.

 

Those are direct injection high numbers, WOW!

 

Nope ..... no direct port injection although if I hadn't already finished the heads I would use it. Remember, our two injectors per cylinder flow a combined 1500 cc's of fuel. In addition we are pulsing the spark with a very high output CD system. That's enough clue's for now.

The principle of what we are doing isn't new. The distance to where we are taking it to is.

 

No I meant those CR #'s are as high as they would normally run on a DI engine. And I have a general idea as to how your running such high compression, its really the best way....high compression and high boost that along with your other development work should give you a throttle response comparable to good N/A engines. I also have a strange idea that your theories about knock detection are more than just theories at this point. Your build is not only breaking conventional Porsche engine thinking, but engine thinking in general!