Originally Posted by
Fabrik8
Do you say things like this just to see if I'm hanging around and paying attention...?
If it's a cast manifold, most of the reputable brands of ceramic coating will work fine if the manifold is prepared properly. So JetHot, HPC, Swain, Tech Line, any of those will work fine. Tech Line is actually what Thermal Tech Coatings I believe; they're water born ceramic coatings so they're pretty easy for distributors to do without having much special equipment.
There are usually reasons that coatings have cracking or flaking problems, and those reasons aren't usually blamed. All that you ever hear is "______ brand of coating flakes off" but you never hear that it's a mild steel header that was chipped and has been corroding under the coating or that it's a one piece long tube header under high vibration with poor strain relief. The problem is always blamed on the coating and not the application.
And yes, Swain makes really good coatings but they aren't the only game in town for coating street car parts.
When the Jet Hot pitted off my cast headers (and then Jet Hot told me to take a hike on a warranty recoat), I started asking around. You are the FIRST person out of about 20 who has said non-Swaintech won't come off. Some of the people I talked to were themselves coating shops who told me that their work would eventually come off if I drive it a lot. Everybody I talked to about coatings said they come off, and eventually people started saying Swaintech's won't come off. Then I noticed that nobody I talked to who had a Swaintech coating had it come off. So, I've got the experience of about 20 people who had non-Swaintech, who all had it come off, and then about 6 people who had Swaintech none of whom had it come off.
That is why I say things like what I said.