Swain Tech exhaust coating

[Dave Wharran]

I got the exhaust system back from Swain the other day. The ceramic they do is not cosmetic or for corrosion resistance (it's a stainless system so corrosion is not a worry). It is only sprayed on the outer surfaces. It is advertised as white in color and is fairly thick. It is supposed to reduce radiant heat by 50%. We'll see!

In actuality, the coating is not smooth like Jet Hot or HPC. It is more granular looking and is more of a platimum color than it is white.
Cost to coat the system was about $500 which included the mufflers. It was only gone about 2 weeks including shipping time to and from NY.
Nice folks to deal with.

 

[Bill Bayard]

Dave,

A 50% reduction in radiant heat is a pretty bold claim.

Please keep us posted on how it pans out. I hope that

the Swain system works as advertised! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif


Bill

 

[Jim Rosenthal]

Dave, am I right this coating precludes welding, so the system is clamped together?

 

[Dave Wharran]

The system was welded together before coating. Further welding would require removal of the coating.
The clamp ring you see on the collector is a V type clamp from Burns Stainless that I used to make the mufflers easily removable.
Each pipe is a slip fit into the collectors. 2 weld on tabs on each collector and mating pipe hold the pipes and collectors together. Removing the system from the engine would be impossible without first taking the collectors off.

A 50% reduction in radient heat would be most welcome. I hope it is that good.
The owner of Swain said that the white color makes a good base/primer for paint should you want them a different color. He said that VHT high temp paint or anything similar can be painted over the white with excellent results.
I plan to leave mine white colored. I would have left them just plain stainless with no coating if they wouldn't have put off so much heat.
We'll see in a few weeks how well they do.

Swain's site for exhaust coatings
http://www.swaintech.com/header.html#price

Burns Stainless site for the clamps
http://www.burnsstainless.com/Hardware/Clamps/clamps.html

I purchased the SS tubing and collectors from Burns also.

Both companies are excellent to deal with!

Dave

 

[Chris Duncan]

Did you take some temperature measurements before coating so you could make a comparison?