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Ceramic coating exhaust


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Posted

Hi all,

My friends with 912s wrap their exhaust with this woven fiberglass/ceramic stuff to keep excess heat out of the engine compartment. For the most part it works pretty well and does the job. I've watched them sit there with the glass "tape" sitting in water and wrapping it tight around the pipes and attaching band clamps to hold it in place. over time it frays from being hit during maintenance and eventually has to be replaced. I've also heard that wrapping exhausts shortens the life of the pipe although I don't know.

I did not like the idea of this but was well aware of the damage heat can do to oil and water hoses, engine mounts and other plastic, rubber or fiberglass in the engine compartment. I decided to try something different and see how it worked. Now that I have about 50 hours on my solution I think I can report back with my impressions.

The solution I chose to try was ceramic coating. I had the inside and outside of the header pipes coated and just the outside of the muffler because they could not sandblast the inside of the muffler. 

The results so far are amazing. My friends who wrap agree and will be coating their exhausts next time they require maintenance. The heat reduction is significant. All that heat that builds up and stays around after shutdown just isn't there. There is no hardening or burning of nearby rubber components. The coating seems super strong and stuck on. No chipping or scratching even when I have hit it with a tool or something. Not saying it couldn't be scratched, I'm not willing to do that on purpose, but it is very durable.

The cost was just over $100.00 to have the whole shitteree coated. And it looks awesome! The company that did mine does all of Kenmore Air's exhausts. I did not know this when I called them, it just came up in the conversation. They said Kenmore uses the coating to greatly extend the life of their seaplane exhausts. 

I wish I had known about this technology when I was flying behind the 582. it would substantially reduce the heat from the expansion chamber and muffler on the 582, and coating the inside of the expansion chamber would be so easy.

Chris

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Posted (edited)

Sounds like some good stuff. I just finished mine with half high temp powder coating and the manifold and 90 done in VHT Fire proof coating. We shall see how this holds up. I have just over $90 into what I did so the price of your coating seems more than fair. 

Edited by NorthIdahoAvidflyer
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Posted

We have also done this on sled exhausts when the skidonts were melting out the mag side seals do to the super tight cowling, shitty air flow and stupid can placement.  It GREATLY lowered the temps around the exhaust can.

:BC:

 

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Posted

I am sure it's great but my concern would be a crack in the exhaust. As I understand this, if it's ceramic coated there is no way you can weld a crack in your exhaust. Also a crack under the coating could go unnoticed....Had a crack in my exhaust, was easy fix as I don't have this ceramic coating.

My 2 cents.

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Posted

I have experienced no cracking....so far. That's part of the beauty of the coating. The metal doesn't go through the extreme temp variations because the heat never reaches it (on the inside coated pipes that is)

If it were to crack, I would just grind or blast the coating off and weld I think. Then have it re-coated. The coating is super thin. If a crack were to develop I would see it right away as if the metal were bare. This coating is nothing like powder coating where a crack could definitely go unnoticed. 

Not saying it is for everyone, I was just reporting my results on an experiment that I am so far very happy with the outcome.

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Posted

Coated exhaust is an easy fix.  Media blast off the coating, weld, re-coat.  Easy peasy.

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Posted

Good info guys, thanks 

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Posted

My 582 exhaust is ceramic coated. It's thin, durable, gets the heat out and is easy to inspect. I would definitely do it again. 

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Posted

What an excellent idea!   I've sourced a shop in my hometown and will be chatting up with them next week about this.  Thanks for posting Chris.

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Posted

My friend Max has a Rans S-6 with 582. He was encountering exhaust problems in the form of burning/melting the rubber flex mounts for the exhaust and the exhaust being close to cowl and getting super hot. He did the ceramic coating after he saw mine. Temps are greatly reduced and all is fine. They coated inside and out of Y pipe and expansion chamber. Like mine they were only able to coat the outside of the muffler. Still the temp reduction is significant. It's crazy how you can touch the exhaust very shortly after shutdown. Everything runs so much cooler.

IMG_0726.JPG

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Posted (edited)

I ceramic coated my exhaust myself since I also powder coat my oven goes up to the temp to cure it. After I ceramic coated it I then wrapped it with the exhaust wrap. I still need to wrap the actual muffler but that's next anyway. So far temps in the compartment are down and I can pretty much touch anything around my exhaust and its not all that hot.

Edited by chopndrag

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Posted

Hi Chopndrag (Sorry don't know your actual name) Did you coat both inside and outside of the pipes with your setup? As I understand it the most significant temp reduction comes from coating the inside. I am just curious.

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Posted

Actual name is Steve. I coated just the outside and whatever I could just by sticking the gun in as far as I could on the inside. Getting the inside fully coated isn't all that possible with all the turns in the exhaust. The manifold and elbow aren't hard but the actual muffler is a pain. I'm still working out the bugs in my plane after all the other mods I've done so I can't really tell how ot helped with my temps. I have to make or find new throttle cables as my others were to long for the new cowel and were binding really bad and making my slides pull uneven making me have less power . I was climbing at about 1000fpm solo and it dropped to 500fpm. Hopefully after I get the cables figured out I'll be back in the air. If all else fails a yamaha 130hp is going in my plane and I'll have unlimited climb haha . 

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