[tjdjr]

I have been tossing around getting a cast iron intake coated by a company near Buffalo NY. They can (cermakrome) coat it without the polishing process and it will have an aluminum look to it, but my concern is heat. What opinions, recommendations, and /or other coatings has anyone used with success? Thanks, Tom

here is a link http://hotshotspowdercoatingceramic....er_Coating.php

[Steve C.]

Provided the ceramic coating is properly applied there should be no issue with heat effecting it. However keep in mind the final apperance will only be as good as the surface preparation prior to the coating being applied. Whatever the finish looks like before the final coating, is exactly what it will look like after they apply the coating. The coating will not hide surface defects. If the objective is to have smooth bright shiny surface the intake should be polished and buffed first. The polish or shine that is on the work piece before applying the coating will determine what the final results will be.



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[tjdjr]

I am not worried about the ceramic taking the heat, I am wondering if it will hold too much heat in the manifold ? any thoughts?

[Sirrotica]

Headers are ceramic coated to keep heat inside of them in an effort to keep the under hood area cooler along with keeping the exhaust hotter so it flows better/faster. Ceramic coating the intake will most likely keep heat inside the cast iron over plain paint making the cast iron hotter than without. The hotter the air inside the intake the more room it takes up slowing the flow over cooler O2 laden air. I really have no idea what percentage of an effect it would have, but there would be at least some effect.

It could be 0.5% 0r it could be 10%, there's probably a formula floating around somewhere to give you an idea at least how much effect it would have.

[David Holmberg]

At one point wasn't NASCAR coating their intakes to keep the heat out?

[Sirrotica]

Smokey Yunick used GE Glyptal paint on the inside of the intake runners because the ports were not allowed to ported or polished. The Glyptal paint smoothed the rough insides of the intake to promote fuel/air flow. I never heard of any other used on intakes than that and in Smokey's interviews he never alluded to it being a device to limit heat absorption in the manifold. That would be the only instance I know of using paint on the intake side in NASCAR.

[David Holmberg]

Seems like it was in the late 90's, but I can't remember anything anymore.

[Goatracer1]

Also remember ceramic coating is very hard and brittle. Anything you try to tighten down or screw into it will tend to crack it. Tapping sending unit holes to remove the coating maybe difficult to do without ruining the coating around the hole.

[Donovan]

Anecdotal at best. But, I swapped an aluminum HO intake onto my engine with plates blocking the crossover. So the heat source was only the interface between the heads and intake/bolts.

The intake warmed a great deal more slowly however, with a short drive the intake would be hot and difficult to rest your hand on.

I apologize if I missed the point. But I think your concern about holding heat is somewhat valid. If you have an operational exhaust crossover this would be a bad idea(to coat the intake.) To make a difference you need to coat it and plug the exhaust. Also need a better way to insulate from the head flanges. If this does work it would be best taken advantage of if the air fuel mix adjusted with the colder denser air. You need a throttle body fuel injection setup.

In the end if you manage to get it to stay cooler, will it result in performance or behaviors that make it less driveable? It's not the end of the world if you try this, you can always just swap another intake on if you don't like it!

It'll be pretty!

With my setup it ran choppy until the intake was fully hot. This was a quadrajet.

[tjdjr]

I figured that the ceramic is used for headers to keep heat going out the back versus the engine bay, that is why I asked. I have the heat crossover still on intake and I know it gets very hot, so what is out there to paint a cast iron intake that will hold up for awhile ?