Ceramic coating - Swain vs. Jethot

You can get Zircotec in the States now (as used by a number of F1 teams):

www.zircotec.com

http://www.zircotec.com/page/distributors-in-america/112

 

I'm interested in this as well. I think I'm going with Swain, but it would be great to hear about direct experience with the product.

 

I have used Swain extensively on turbo Audis with reasonable cosmetic effect. performance wise ... unable to tell the difference except under very controlled conditions where i was careful not to allow heat soak before the dyno pull. And then the difference was very small. I can understand that as your HP goes up a small percentage improvement is more HP than on a lower powered motor. So on a brutal I-5 KO-27 former IMSA monster we saw an improvement of about 8 hp at the top end getting us to 688. But on a 1.8 4 banger with a stage 1 220 HP (ATW), the difference was a barely detectable 4 HP.

After a few months use the color changes to a mottled or dirty whatever. So white turns brown, as does Red. Blue turned black so not sure the cosmetics are worth it though on a cast iron EM on the I-5 it did stop the surface rust.

 

Did you notice any temp. difference in the engine bay? Would you use it again?

 

I had Swain Tech do my headers. They look great, but they don't have any time on them yet for me to comment on the heat effectiveness of the coating.

 

Did you happen to take a temp reading "before" ?

 

I've used Swain white lightning on a few 355 with Fabspeed headers and so far all clients are happy. Engine bay temps are a little lower than stock.

Chris Felber

 

Update on those with swain and measurements?

 

So Swain coated Fabspeed headers give a cooler engine compartment than the stock headers with insulation and heat shields? If so, that's very impressive...

 

I think a lot of us have the heat question question. I found this chart at the Zircotec site at Zircotec - Plasma sprayed ceramic thermal coatings

Looks promising
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