painting exhaust manifold

[bprime]

Hi, well heres my progress and question. Well i have a garage having my motor out doing a full rebuild, new pistons , new head and pretty much new everything but altentaor, costing me a arm and a leg but I need a way to make exhust manifold look better without spending alot since i didnt think of that when I planned cash for this project. The garage says whatever paint we put on it will burn off white smoke even high heat paint they used on tappet cover so any ideas if they make somthing that will work, the garage im at has mechanics with painting experence just no one has a idea i figure its someone here must have a idea.

[Moparbishi]

you could try that VHT 2000* paint from autozone. i painted the compresser of the turbo a couple months and it is still red. 4.99 a can a autozone.

[LeGweg]

VHT high temp paint;

http://www.speco.com.au/vht_flameproof.html

[2.216VTurbo]

Even the 2000 degree stuff seems to turn chalky and white after a while. Griott's sells a silver paste like stuff that you rub on with a toothbrush. Comes in a little tub and one tub has lasted me like 10-12 manifolds. You really need to bead blast first to get a real clean surface for the 'powdered metal paste' to stick to.

Alan

[GLHNSLHT2]

Get it coated. I know a couple TU guys or shops around here do coatings. Then it'd be a nice silver on the outside for the rest of it's life. It'd also keep down the heat in the engine bay.

[cordes]

I have never heard of a coating that you can do yourself which will hold up to the heat a turbo manifold like ours will put out. I have not heard much in favor of most coatings out their to begin with. The TU stuff is one of the few positive comments I have heard thus far.

[GLHNSLHT2]

yeah I wasn't saying to do it yourself. It's got to be applied and baked on a certain way.

[2.216VTurbo]

Kind of brings us back to the 'exhaust manifold dressing' that Griott's sells. Cheap and do it yourself.

Alan

[Dave]

Yah any kind of paint including that high temp stuff doesn't work. We had 2 exhaust manifolds bead blasted and painted with high temp paint and they smoked white, stunk to high heaven, and started to chunk off. We have 3 more manifolds laying around that are already bead blasted and painted that we're going to install that will do the same thing all over again!

We even tried baking ours at 350* for an hour and a half, then at 500* for 3 hours and it still came off.

[BTB]

I think it was carcraft mag that had said to let the engine run till warm up and then turn engine off to cool down. It helps bake the paint on.

[supercrackerbox]

I used VHT aluminum colored Flameproof paint on my exhaust manifold. Scrubbed the hell out of it with a wire brush, cleaned it with acetone, and painted her up. I then set it on top of my kerosene furnace for a couple hours. That manifold was done nearly 6 years ago and is now on it's third engine. It's starting to have rust spots right up against the head, but overall it's still a nice silver and no flaking.

[bprime]

What im going to do is put back on old one rest of motor will be painted, but soon ill get a new one that is all powdercoated, I wann get a new exust pipe to all power coated, cars getting undercoated once motor goes in.
Hopein to have it back on this weekend, then ill post pictures, hoping bill wont be to high.

[Holley]

Powdercoating isn't suitable for the header / downpipe, it'll burn off ... for the downpipe you could go with jet coating or the cheaper aluminium coating (where the pipes appear white) if you're not happy with it as it is. Best is an all stainless exhaust (with just a new downpipe), the one on my SC (2 1/2") is now 8 years old and still looks like new (apart from the muffler, which is optional anyway, lol).

[turbomopar87]

my buddy put headers on his ram 1500 a couple months back and wrapped them in some sort of heat tape. If you take the time to not get wrinkles, it actually looks really nice, kind of a charcol color. I know it was really cheap too, just a suggestion.

[supercrackerbox]

Problem with wrapping the exhaust manifolds is it traps in too much heat and the manifold will expand to the point where it will shear the studs off of the head and/or turbo.

[85shelbycharger]

We used Por 15 manifold paint on the exhaust manifolds for my dad's 70 Coronet 500. They've held up really nice so far and we've put about 800 miles on it so far..

[JohnnyLightning86]

I have also used that Very High Temp paint from Autozone that is rated up to 2200 degrees and thought it worked pretty well. The Aluminum color dries fast and it looks really nice. I have used it on the manifold and the Swing Valve.

As for prepping it, I like to strip as much rust off as possible with a steel brush attachment on a reversible drill so I can hit it in both directions. You can knock off almost all of it except for the areas you can't get the attachment into. Then I use a regular steel brush with a narrow width to get into the hard spots. Then treat it with Aircraft Rust Remover.

Another cool thing about the steel brush attachments is you can use them to polish the other aluminum components on the engine and make them look really nice - I have done the Intake Manifold, A/C bracket, Trans Housing, Turbo Housing, and Valve Covers on my cars like that. Then you can take it even further by sanding each piece with finer and finer grade sand paper from like 220 to 2000 grit or higher to get a near mirror surface.

[Holley]

Problem with wrapping the exhaust manifolds is it traps in too much heat and the manifold will expand to the point where it will shear the studs off of the head and/or turbo.

You also get more condensation with the wrap, its not uncommon for mild steel headers to rust real quick inside, so you go touch 'em and it just crumbles!
It has it's uses, but a street car with regular engine mounting isn't really one of them ...

[moparzrule]

I then set it on top of my kerosene furnace for a couple hours. .

Wow I am so freaked out to hear I'm not the only one to do that!!! Hahahaha! Must be a turbo dodge owner thing, LMAO.

[supercrackerbox]

Lol, yeah, I love that furnace. Did the exact same thing with painting an intercooler, turbine housing, and a ton of various suspension and brackets.