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Thermal Coating

Ibiza sport man

Full Member
Dec 13, 2003
155
0
Kettering
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Barnard
Heat lost by a surface = temp diferential between surface and air X heat transfer coeficcient x area.

If you drop heat transfer coefficent by a factor of 4 it has the same effect as reducing the temperature differential by the same factor when you look at heat transfer from the surface.

With a moving fluid at the heat transfer surface it gets more complicated, but the basics are still the same.

Anything technical written by Max Torque is fact. I wish he posted a lot more so that we hobby tuners could poach/apply more of his (and his employers)insider knowledge, thats come from r&d budgets we can only dream of.

If you think it makes no difference, ceramic coat your intercooler core.:p

The heat transfer coefficient of the coating has very little to do with it.

Firstly, the heat transfered by convection is dependent on the overall heat transfer coefficient between the media (air and the ceramic or metal surfaces). Not by just one of them. The heat lost to air by natural convection is mainly determined by the heat transfer coefficient of air which is about 2000 times worse than steel and about 130 times worse than Zirconia (the coating)

The overall transfer coefficient is determined by adding the reciprocal of the individual heat transfer coefficients together. So even if you reduce the heat transfer coefficient of one component by a factor of 4 it only reduces the overall coefficient by 7%

Secondly, the heat lost by radiation is not affected by the heat transfer coefficient at all, only by the temperature of the surface and its colour.

I agree that ceramic coating an intercooler would be a dumb thing to do, but only because:

a) the heat is transferred by forced convection which in this case would be 30-50 times more effective than natural.
b) there is no heat lost by radiation.

I agree fully with you about Max_Torque (and Bill for that matter) and normally their knowledge is far greater than mine, but having experience in this field I felt I should comment rather than let somebody waste their money.

If Max (or anybody) has any under bonnet ambient air and surface temperatures that show surface coatings do the job then please share them.

Bernard
 
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ibizacupra

Jack-RIP my little Friend
Jul 25, 2001
31,333
19
glos.uk
Hmmmm, well I still think it's snake oil. Compared with a black manifold and downpipe then OK you will see maybe 30% less radiation but I can't see it affecting underbonnet temperatures that much.

But if you reckon it works on your car Bill then that's good enough for me, but I would like to see some before and after numbers to be convinced.

Bernard

I have used loads of heat wrap and its an annual if not more job to continually replace it... burnt, turns to glass, cracks and falls off..
The coating is fit and forget, and boy does it work..

we did some runs on the mani/DP and after only 5 mins could touch the DP without loss of skin to fingers.. Heat reduction was impressive.

Mines maybe an extreme case duty wise, but next manifold incarnation will have this coating on it like we did on Matts golf.

heat wrap is cheap initially, but becomes a bore to keep replacing it time after time.. for me anyhows.

:thumbup:
 

Ianb

Full Member
Nov 13, 2003
332
0
I have used loads of heat wrap and its an annual if not more job to continually replace it... burnt, turns to glass, cracks and falls off..
The coating is fit and forget, and boy does it work..

we did some runs on the mani/DP and after only 5 mins could touch the DP without loss of skin to fingers.. Heat reduction was impressive.

Mines maybe an extreme case duty wise, but next manifold incarnation will have this coating on it like we did on Matts golf.

heat wrap is cheap initially, but becomes a bore to keep replacing it time after time.. for me anyhows.

:thumbup:


My manifold also has a black Ceramic coating and some new H/D heat wrap.

Gets very very hot back there...800c ++ I'm told....glowd nice and orange at night!!

I assume you get big heat dissapation on the zorst manifold Bill??
 

ibizacupra

Jack-RIP my little Friend
Jul 25, 2001
31,333
19
glos.uk
My manifold also has a black Ceramic coating and some new H/D heat wrap.

Gets very very hot back there...800c ++ I'm told....glowd nice and orange at night!!

I assume you get big heat dissapation on the zorst manifold Bill??


Its stainless, its tubular its passing a lot of hot air...............

;)
 

Fl@pper

Back older greyer and less oilier but always hope
Jun 19, 2001
12,368
25
Gloucester
open headers and we are re wrapping it 3 times a year - 8 fecking pipes too

the wrap works ok but is labour intensive but then then they are out in the open and are off 3 times a month anyway so not as bad as doing a 20vt

more to stop us melting knees on it than anything else mind :):)
 

ibizacupra

Jack-RIP my little Friend
Jul 25, 2001
31,333
19
glos.uk
logged EGT's on mine see's peak 950'C when racing.. more from overrun leaner conditions and a spike, under load mines more 880'C on turbine outlet on DP.
 

Simon99

Guest
Ceramic Coating

A friend of mine used a company called Zircotec (www.zircotec.com) who do a thick Plasma Ceramic Spray. They gave him a 3yr guarantee on the coating, and he says that it gives a huge reduction in temperature. Has anyone else used Zircotec?
 

minimivic

Drives a 16v mini
Aug 26, 2006
189
0
Dorset
www.btinternet.com
bill just used them the other week lol


Probably wish I had but they didnt return my calls or email. :cry:
My manifold got sent back yesterday to be redone after the ceramic started to fall off (hadn't even been run). Lets hope next time it will be better.
ceramic1.JPG
 

ibizacupra

Jack-RIP my little Friend
Jul 25, 2001
31,333
19
glos.uk
A friend of mine used a company called Zircotec (www.zircotec.com) who do a thick Plasma Ceramic Spray. They gave him a 3yr guarantee on the coating, and he says that it gives a huge reduction in temperature. Has anyone else used Zircotec?

yes i use them for ceramic coating.
its well applied, stays stuck and does reduce radiated temps massively.

zircotec did a good job for me
 

Simon99

Guest
Thanks to those who replied. Ive been doing more reading on the Zircotec website tonight (www.zircotec.com). It all looks convincing and there are some good reports on other forums.

Does anyone have experience of the heat drop and performance increase that Zircotec claim on their website? Also, is there anyone out there with pictures of what the coating looks like in the different colours.....

Minimivic - what is that black stuff down the inside of your header? It looks like peeling black paint.....Who did that? It looks like it will be a sod to get out.
 

minimivic

Drives a 16v mini
Aug 26, 2006
189
0
Dorset
www.btinternet.com
simon,

The black stuff is internal ceramic coating, except the company that did it didnt do somehing right and it all bubbled and flaked off before i used it. I was told it wouldnt hurt the turbo, but i wanted it redone. after all I did pay to get the job done correctly.
 

h17och

the hunt is over. 460bhp
Sep 1, 2005
3,504
1
Dunstabubble
is it black externally?

in the collector it looks like there is a small pipe joining in. kinda top left of collector in pic

what is it?
 
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