Quote:
Originally Posted by RalliartRsX
My day job is lead engineer building small scale turbines, heating elements and ICE. SO I do have a little bit of experience in exhaust materials. Also, to confirm, Indy car and F1 uses a specific type of coating and not a "polish" compound.
Your idea of polishing and mine are somewhat different, hence my questioning.
Also, last I checked, the Indycar and F1 headers are inconel with a "coating" and not a polishing as you stated. It starts out as a "polished" or reflective surface, but quickly turns into a dull hue as once inconel is heat cycled (the first pictures you posted is a VERY good example of this effect happening, as you can see the "reflective" coating slowly loosing is shine) it forms a coating or barrier around the metal which protects it from abrasion and insulates it. Here is a detailed picture of the Renault from the V8 era (I had a chance to go into the pit garages at Montreal a few years ago)
Renault (if I remember) F1 car from a few years ago
Below is a gentleman that does the Indycar Manifold coatings and you can see, one of the coatings is actually reflective (which can easily be descerned as polished)
The link to the gentleman above
https://www.rbracing-rsr.com/coatings.html
And lastly, just because I have a "sentra" means nothing to my experience level. Cheap, easy fun was the goal and that's what it attained  . Money spent does not equal knowledge. |
Some of your info is true, some is false.
First and foremost the first picture I posted is NOT an inconel coated header with anything applied to it in the slightest. I know this because that is my Toyota Atlantic car and I polished the manifold myself from a bare stainless. Zero coating of any kind, just polishing. Hence why it has turned gold as mentioned earlier.
Second, I am not claiming that all indy cars are one way or another or that one method is better or worse. I clearly stated that many are coated, including all current DW12 cars done by Howerton Products, as a spec thermal coat for all in the series (and has been for some time) and requires re-coats at mileaged intervals in order to not melt the exhaust valves (does not have to do with keeping engine bay temps down as your point alluded to. While, YES some of the 15 year old v8 indy car headers (including your pictured oldsmobile V8) are thermal coated, many of them are not, as it is not needed with NA engines in the slightest.
You seem to be stuck on the fact that there is a thermal coating available that is shiny, while yes, I have agreed with you on this point. Multiple times.
I acknowledge the fact that these coatings exist, and have driven many racecars with them. However, point being, cars like ours that are glorified street cars with mild engines DO NOT require these coatings, so there is no sense in bashing my inquiry to Imarvin240.
Imarvin240 I greatly appreciate your response and it is nice to know! I will contact TF and see if they can point me in the direction of their coater. Really like how that one turned out!