| Author | Message | ||
     Bedellb |
Hey guys, I have been thinking about whether or not I should get powder coating, exhaust wraps or high heat paint for my exhaust headers. I know that powder coating is on the high end solution and high heat paint is on the low end with wraps in the middle. Besides the way they look and price; what is the difference in performance. Is there anyone who uses the high heat paint that is satisfied? I hear that wraps fade and may come undone if not installed properly and coating is something that is about 200 bucks and you go without riding for a while. If you respond to this please include the company that you recommend that I could further my research and make the right decision. I have a 99 X1 and it gets a little hot on the leg when I'm in the city or generally after an hour of riding. I am not looking for performance enhancement but just to keep the heat down. | ||
| Kevyn |
Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but high heat paint will do little to nothing to reduce the heat radiating from your header pipes. The high-temp ceramic coatings will look best, depending on what 'look' you're going for. The coating can be applied to the outside or inside only or both. Most folks can easily deal with just having the pipes coated on the outside. I Think, the inside coating is mostly for specialty applications. I think again, that if you search in the Knowledge Vault you'll find several references to companies that offer coating services. Look in your local phone directory, there may be a local shop offering the same services that could give you a faster turn around time. The wrap you can do at home yourself. Easy. It will give you a significant heat radiance reduction. Down time should be an afternoon at most. And, it looks alright. Take your time wrapping, you can always go back and re-wrap if you make a slight mistake. At season's end if you're unhappy with the wrap you can always take it off and opt for a coating. | ||
| Mmmi_grad |
Eh I read a post around here about sanding the headers down , need to wet sand them with 400 grit then some 600 grit then buff them with course grit buffing compund and its up to you if you want to buff them with fine compound like 3m finess it.....but any way the thread went like by making the surface smooth heat disapation goes out the window or heat disapation was reduced like 50% and this result was backed up too with scientific proof and stuff LOL. I will be doing it first time my pipes come off. Going to do the same job as a wrap wound do, be cheaper and look good too. | ||
| Whodom |
Bedellb: Check my post on the quick board about polishing my headers. I used sandpaper (320 grit, then 400, then 600) then polished them with Eagle 1 Mag & Aluminum polish. It cut the heat being radiated to my leg on the order of 50%, and the pipes look cool too. They have since "baked" to that goldish tint, but so far, the heat they are putting out remains very low. It's a cheap fix, and if it isn't good enough for you, you can always try header wrap later. | ||
| Kevyn |
Forgive me, I'm a bit dense sometimes; How does polishing metal reduce radiant heat? I would think that polishing the surface, removing contaminants and minor imperfections, would increase the transfer of heat from/across the surface...the pipe/surface may in fact cool faster--more efficiently with fewer imperfections and less contaminant material to hold heat, but I don't understand a reduction. Is the motor still running at the same temperature? Have the exhaust gas temperatures changed? Ceramic coatings and the header wrap will significantly reduce heat radiance from the pipes. That's what they are designed to do---hold the heat inside, maintaining temperatures inside the pipe to maintain a more constant flow through the pipe and to reduce heat escaping--heat felt radiating from the pipe surface. I think, that polishing the header pipes will allow the heat to escape faster/more efficiently because you've effectively removed imperfections and contaminants that would/could be holding heat in and preventing an efficient heat transfer from the pipe surface by cooler air passing over/across the pipe---thus reducing the internal gas temperatures and consequently reducing their flow rates...a polished pipe should be radiating heat very efficiently, it should also be cooling proportionately. I would bet that the surface temperature of a polished pipe is significantly greater than the surface temperature of any ceramic coated or wrapped pipe. Unfortunately, I lack sufficient mathematical and engineering aptitude to apply a formula to actually measure heat radiance. However, ceramic coatings and heat wrap are in use today and have been in use for 'awhile' doing exactly what they were designed to do---reduce radiated heat or to hold heat inside what ever form they are applied upon. I could be mistaken. I'm always ready to learn. | ||
| Whodom |
Kevyn, Polishing reduces the radiant (not convective) heat transfer by changing a property of the surface called emissivity. A flat black surface (for instance) has very high emissivity and radiates (or absorbs) heat at a very high rate. A shiny surface has a low emissivity and therefore does the opposite. Polishing would increase the heat transfer by conduction (what you'd feel if you actually touched the surface) and maybe by convection (metal-to-air) by removing any oxidation from the surface which would tend to inhibit heat transfer. The heat felt in my leg is reduced because the vast majority of the heat transfer is by radiation- the hot exhaust pipe radiating heat to my relatively cool leg. My headers were heavily oxidized before I polished them; they were almost a dull brown color. That would have given them a fairly high emissivity. I haven't run the numbers to try to quantify the change in radiant heat transfer, but it is readily apparent when I ride my bike. I was very surprised that that polishing them made as big of a difference as it did, but I can't think of any other explanation for the change. | ||
| Drwend1 |
Bedellb I had my new race header ceramic coated at Jet Hot. It was $100.00 plus shipping. They coat the header inside and out. Seems like a very durable finish that looks good in my opinion. I am waiting until the temperature goes up before I pass judgment on its thermal properties DRW | ||
| Patrickh |
FireCoat in CT does a good job, they will clean up the part for extra. Never had them do an exhaust, but I have had frame and wheel experiance. | ||
| Aaomy |
all i have to say is this, i like the look of all three, have no bias towards or against any of them, a friend has the ceramic out side and internal coating on his pipe and swears by it. the silver color looks nice but he said that he lightly scratched it while putting it on. so you may want to ask the other bad webbers with coated pipes about durability. "front wheel stone chips". i ran wrapped pipes for a couple years. liked the looks, yes the black in the "DEI" header wrap baked out and went white over time. it started with a cool zebra affect and worked its way down the pipes. i liked it but the pipe still got hot enough to light my jeans on fire, turning me into a cool little night time fire works spectacular. the girl on the back happily stomped me out and after we got home even helped dress the third degree burns on my leg. now mind you i ride a s2. i think court "may" have said that he wraps his pipes twice. sounds like a good idea to me. i currently am running a lightly polished pipe with heat shield and am loveing it. in my mind its all about what you want, or like, performance would say ceramic or wrap, but that is all matter of choice. | ||
| Littlebuggles |
I polished my bike's stock header after owning it one season, never noted any difference in heat, sure like having a polished stainless steel pipe though, it looks great. I would get the pipe coated in a heart beat if they could get the same finish as the steel (I wonder if they could do just the inside???). Been considering a black finish though, safety as much as performance are factors for consideration. ...never lit my pants on fire but I burned my forehead (on the front header) when I lost my balance putting a cable through my front wheel last year - while I have learned to be more careful I have had to move fast to intercept my toddler when she's come to greet me after a ride. The stock header on my dad's Seadoo has had a ceramic coating put on by a company called "Pipe Dreams". It's only just warm to the touch with the engine running and cools extremely fast. I like it. -Mike | ||
| Twowheeldream |
it only cost you 100.00 for the ceramic coating inside and out?!?! i thought it would be a lot more expensive than that... Jet Hot have a website?  | ||
| Drwend1 |
Twowheeldream The web site is www.jet-hot.com The $100 price was for coating a new header. I believe there is an additional fee for coating a header that has been used. (additional prep) Shipping is not particularly cheap. In my case if I recall correctly Jet Hot charged around $27.00 to ship it back to me. I assume this will vary based on distance. DRW | ||
| Whodom |
Mike, I think the heat reduction on my S3 was so dramatic because my rear pipe was SO funky before I polished it. If your pipes are fairly clean I can see that there would be little or no heat reduction, at least not a noticeable difference. |
