A lot has been said previously about the high temps under the bonnet of the Q45's.

I've just been reading about some Hi-Tech Coatings that were originally developed for Jet Engine turbines & then adapted to Top Fuelers, by a guy named Jeff Holm. He was a member of Mike Brotherton's team which posted the 1st sub 4.7 second pass.

The best feature of this coating is that it dramatically reduces the under bonnet temps when used on exhausts, turbo's etc.

Tickford Australia did some tests & found that it reduced the Exhaust temps by 70deg Celcius. The coatings are designed to withstand temps up to 1300 deg. Celcius!

A 1997 Ford Falcon V8 was tested, & the Under bonnet temps reduced from 55 deg Celcius to 29 deg Celcius.

The Brake booster temp reduced from 55 deg C to 29 deg C,

Wiring Harnesses from 60 deg C to 34 deg C.

Clutch Cable from 57 deg C to 35 deg C.

Sarter Motor from 133 deg C to 95 deg C.

Another example was a 1.6l turbo mazda. They coated the Cast Exhaust manifold & placed probes on the exhaust, 2" away from the head, & the temps went down from 800 deg C to 210 deg C.

There was a 31% reduction in under bonnet temps from 58 deg C to only 40 deg C, which in turn gave the engine another 7% increase in power, from 118Kw to 129Kw.

These coatings are for any engine part, from the Valve Spring to the Exhaust. HSV (Holden Special Vehicles) even coat their Brake Calipers to reduce heat & improve appearances.

This stuff has been used for years in racing engines & should be considered as a way to reduce the temps under the bonnets of our Q's.

You can probably find info under HPC, which can be found in Countries around the World.

If any of you has any done anything like this, & has some results, let us know.

The full story can be found in the Zoom Mag, number 43, & if you want to subscribe, go to http://www.expresspublications.com.au & follow the links.What do you think of Hi Tech Coatings

Notice that the Q engine has stainless steel heat shields on the exhausts to reduce underhood temperature and to hold the heat in so the cats work faster and better.

The mass of the engine and the coolant temperature at 176-194F [80C] is the problem in the summer with the 140F air going into the radiator the outlet air is 160-170F and the under plenum stays around 200-220F since that is the head temperature.

I'm sure extra ceramic coatings would help but you must remove the engine to get the exhaust manifolds out [well almost] I have seen I done in 8 hours.

It would be interesting to see just how much it did lower the temp, especially in slow summer traffic. As you've often said, every degree helps.

ive heard of these coatings now my question is , a coating would keep the heat inside the part that is coated right? wouldnt this be bad for internal engine/part temps ? like if we coated a alumium engine block , the block wouldnt be able to get rid of the heat as well as it could if it was exteremely clean right?

it would be great to keep the starter and other electric goodies alive longer but im wondering about stuff inside whatever is coated

I understand where you are coming from & have asked the same questions myself, but according to the article, the Air Force has beed using it for years & pretty well all motor racers.

To my basic understanding, it keeps heat inside the things that carry heat (exhausts etc) & keeps it out of the parts that are affected by heat, (pistons, heads crank etc), so if the head, pistons valves etc were coated, in theory it should reduce the internal head temps etc, by making the surface less prone to heat soak, so to speak, but it doesn't stop the transfer of heat, is what I'm thinking.

Nulon had a product for the Diffs of vehicles & it contained Teflon, but it seemed to stop the Transfer of heat & when the 4WD's drove for a while on the beach, the diffs used to explode, because the crown wheel couldn't get rid of the heat.

There doesn't seem to be the same problem with this stuff, as I'm sure the Air force & Top fuellers would have given it the boot long ago.

It might be an idea to get some Technical info from the manufacturers.

Hmmmm..... got me to thinking.... what's the purpose of all the insulation on the underside of the hood? I'm sure it's for sound control, but does it trap heat as well? Is removing it a good idea?

Probably better for the paint if you leave it on.

The purpose of this thermal insulation is as Chally pointed out, to keep the exhaust from losing heat thus thermal energy. It also works as a heat sheild, dissipating heat from the surfaces of whatever you coat. I'm sure it works quite well and there are many people, especially engine builders who coat engine internals and power adders (works great for turbo's) who religiously coat their engine components.

In a high-boost turbocharged engine, it helps fend-off detonation AND increases power output AND believe it or not, helps with the emissions. Some guy in another forum talked about how the higher exhaust temps allow the catalytic converters to operate much more efficiently.

If I were to drop in a new engine, I'd make sure to 1) have custom mandrel-bent headers 2) get the thing coated. I'm sure this would increase performance quite a bit.

The absolute best value I have spent on my car in terms of $'s per Horsepower were Ceramic coated mandrel bent headers.

The first upgrade to the exhaust system was only from the cats back. The biggest gains were made when changing the headers.

The interesting thing to note is with the improved exhaust flow, the car ran rich at the top end.

This was easily fixed with the first computer I used, being a Unichip which was used as a Piggyback to remap the fuel parameters.

I am a big believer in tuning an engine on the Dyno with a Laptop than just plugging in a preset chip.

Chally, if you do a full exhaust upgrade and a Unichip upgrade, you will get big gains in HP without spending big dollars.

Once I went past this point I had to spend more and more dollars for each HP gain.

Chally, apparently one of the better Ceramic coatings available in Australia is PowerKote based in Adelaide.

If you really want to find out the benefits of high temperature Ceramic coating, ring Jeff Garland at Exhaust Dynamics who built my custom exhaust system.

http://www.exhaustdynamics.com.au/

Regards

AGM

Thermodynamically the engine consumes 3.3 times more fuel than the horsepower output would suggest.Each gallon could create 120,000 BTU yet a HP is only 12,000 BTU.Roughly 0.5 lbs per hour creates 1 HP at the flywheel. 280 HP needs 140 pounds or 22 gallons per hour.

Actually it is worse than that due to friction! At least 25-30-33% of the heat goes out the exhaust, the other 40-45% is used to heat the air via the radiator and the car body.

Hydrogen fuel will do away with all these problems if we can develop materials strong enough to take the heat!

Reflective coatings on the piston crowns and in the cylinder head keep heat from warming the oil and coolant.....the flame burning speed increases as the heat increases so you can use less ignition advance. Actually you would coat the inside of the headers as coating the outside would lower their life as the stainless steel will change composition after years of extra heat exposure.

Most engines with precats now have very sophisticated expensive exhaust heat isolation and control.

Price an exhaust manifold on a Q it is close to $1300 so it cost the manufacturer $500 each....inside the stainless steel cover are stainless steel TUNED piping HAND WELDED not some cast iron junk.........serious money spent here!The whole trick is to get the most fuel burned in the shortest correct time centered around 17 degrees after top dead center.