Thermo Barrier coatings

[David Lee]

I am putting back together my 340 stocker motor that has been together for 7 years. I am looking for every little trick to gain any ET that I can. When it comes to putting a thermo barrier coating on the underside of the intake manifold.

Does this really work and what kind of ET imporovement has been realized.

And what was the cost?

Thanks

Dave

[Jeff Lee]

The shop I use (www.machdevelopment.com) uses coatings extensively and has documented the improvements with both dyon and track results. From memory I believe a SBC stocker gained .04 with full coating to an intake topside and bottom side. Topside is heat rejecting and bottom side is oil repelling. The same has been done to my parts. And I'm sure many won't believe such claims and I myself can't substantiate the improvements because I've always had the coatings when & were allowed. I do know this, icing the intake of either my cast iron stocker or aluminum SS intakes have never seen the same results as I see on un-coated intakes.
Check the website I posted. There's an interesting story on Bud applying coatings to a model airplane engine. And the shop just did the entire drivetrain of a vintage 4 cylinder road racer. The lap times picked up an incredible amount and I guess the guy was beating cars he couldn't even keep up with before.

[David Lee]

thanks Jeff, I just sent them an email for a quote.

[Tom Goldman]

Dave, I've back to backed my manifold and found the gain to be about .03-.04 in the coating , when hot lapping the car the manifold stays cooler without icing ......Like Jeff, I had a lot of other legal parts coated before,but had never done the intake. ....If you are near the eastern PA area , a good friend of mine opperates Saluta Performance Coatings here in Allentown. .......I've sent you his #'s in a PM . .....Tom

[Jeff Lee]

I'm not sure MACH will give a competitive price on doing one or just a few parts. They are entirely in house on everything except cryogenics and nitriding which is available in town. I think they are involved in coating more for their customer base, something to keep them on top of their competitors more than anything.
What I really wanted you to look at was the r/c airplane engine coatings. It may be a little different but we're still talking about air / fuel, hot / cold engines. What I would like to see is an air-cooled engine like a Porche race engine receiving all the treatments.