Anyone have any first-hand experience? Does it help with spool? Does it hold up? Are there any particular materials that it doesn't seem to hold up well on or adhere well on? I have a cast iron OE log turbo manifold and turbine housing that I'm tempted to get it done one while rebuilding an IHI turbo.
Most places that do Cerakote do the decorative finishes. Cerakote does make a line of "thermal barrier" products but they are not the same as the stuff folks put on guns and whatever.
There is a local shop that does Cerakote, we had them do half a dozen exhaust headers for us and I was able to compare it to Finish line coatings Cermachrome exhaust coating. The Cermachrome header was significantly cooler while running.
No one offers the "thermal barrier" Cerakote product locally so I can't give an apples to apples comparison
Only guys I know of who do it swear by the Swain Tech coatings.
I've had bad luck with Swain - from what I can tell, it's aluminum covered in ceramic. I'm spalling and melting it on my LS3 exhaust, which tells me it would pretty much immediately fall apart on a turbo manifold. When I showed it to them, the answer was basically "shrug, yeah". I'd go Jet Hot next time. Swain looks awesome on the bench but it can't handle a lot of heat.
We did find that cat light-off was improved with a proper ceramic coat on the manifold and housing. I don't recall if we ever measured spool.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
I had the Swain Tech coating on a rotary exhaust manifold last about 1.5 years before it starting spalling off in sheets. I didn't do a detailed failure analysis but it did turn me off of their process. I'll stick to wraps for now. My thought is either their process/materials don't accept much thermal expansion, which would be odd considering how the product is advertised, or they just did a poor job at preparing the substrate (321 SS). My day job has me dealing with thermal barrier coatings designed to survive in environments much more severe than automotive exhausts. Laying the TBC over another coating (we call them "bond coats" at that point) is standard practice. Even with a grit-blased surface TBCs don't like to adhere to base metal. Like any coating, preparation and application are vital.
Mine was also SS but I don't recall the alloy, 409 probably. The base layer is quite thick on it, it's a lot more than just a thin primer. I think it's the bulk of the material. Whether the reason was due to poor prep on Swain's part or a poorly designed product, it doesn't really matter. It's not a product I'd recommend based on my personal experience. That's a shame because it really does look the business.
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