Cast Iron Intake Thermal Barrier Coating.

[grant6395]

Where would you buy it from? Is it available through a jobber? It interests me. Thank you.

[Simmo]

Coat the bottom of the manifold in gasket grade silicon, cheap and simple. You can make a thin aluminium cover if you want it to look better, perhaps polish it.

[Newold1]

fFrst, ditch the iron intake manifold and buy an inexpensive used air gap aluminum intake and make a shield like Pamtorman and Tenxal pictured in this post. The aluminum air gap will keep the mixture cooler than any cast iron rust bucket and the performance gains will be a nice plus.

[rapidride2]

Purposely using a cast iron for this mild build. Meant to look factory smog stock. I also have an additional bowtie marine dual plane I will also coat if I decide to move up in cubes and power band.

[MadBill]

By design, an aluminum manifold such as an Air Gap may better isolate the mixture from engine heat, but aluminum conducts heat 3X better than iron.

[groberts101]

By design, an aluminum manifold such as an Air Gap may better isolate the mixture from engine heat, but aluminum conducts heat 3X better than iron.

True.. but it also dissipates it faster once the rpm and fuel flow increases as well.

[jsgarage]

Per one of your posted questions, a fully warmed engine with a working exhaust crossover will char motor oil splashed up on it. That happens around 280-300F. Then the char chips off, drops down into the oil pan and gets in the oil pump & engine passages.

[user-23911]

Everyone is just guessing?


Why not fit a couple of GM IAT sensors close to the ports, do some proper testing with measurements.
Then report back?

Oil temps usually end up equalling coolant temps(less than 100C / 212F) once warmed up but an exhaust crossover changes that when discussing intake temps.
I'd just play around with water injection, lots more fun.

[groberts101]

Everyone is just guessing?


Why not fit a couple of GM IAT sensors close to the ports, do some proper testing with measurements.
Then report back?

Oil temps usually end up equalling coolant temps(less than 100C / 212F) once warmed up but an exhaust crossover changes that when discussing intake temps.
I'd just play around with water injection, lots more fun.

People doing these types of mod's have been using sensors long before electronics came along. Theyre called hands.

Not rocket science and the fact that you can retune ignition and fuel curves afterwards to further capitalize on potential gains is the biggest benefit.

[user-23911]

Hands have about equal accuracy as using ears to detect knock.


A good approximation to "guesswork".

[groberts101]

Hands have about equal accuracy as using ears to detect knock.


A good approximation to "guesswork".

Lol.. I must have damned good hands and excellent ears then cause they been doing the same job long before OEM's were using electronics to protect their asses from warranty work. The rest can be figured out with flash lights shining into the various ports and reading spark plugs.

Boils down to this. If you can go from barely holding a finger on a scorching hot cast iron intake manifold to laying a hand for prolonged periods of time?.. you're heading in the right direction. Science is fun.. but basic physics can be far more telling without the need for a calculator. Or knock sensor.

[jeff swisher]

I did not coat anything but I did a back to back test of the Perfromer RPM intake vs a stock Iron marine intake and the RPM intake made 30 more HP at the wheels.
I then took a car iron Q jet intake and removed all the plenum divider and blended the entry into the runners like the marine intake and back on the wheel dyno.
That ported plenum intake was only 10HP less than the RPM intake.
I did not open the runners any at all NO porting in the runner exit area at all.

Heads were 601 casting ported and flow 220 cfm with 1.84 valve and 176 cfm exhaust flow at .500" lift 1.50 valve.. nothing special.
218@ .050 cam.
2 carbs were used and jetting and timing was experimented with for best power numbers.

Friend has a 6.0 LQ9 with carb.. that thing runs terrible in the winter time.. can't get any heat into the intake.
Drive around for 35 minutes and it starts to come around.
Some heat is good.. especially in winter time and for gas MPG

[psychomotors]

Purposely using a cast iron for this mild build. Meant to look factory smog stock. I also have an additional bowtie marine dual plane I will also coat if I decide to move up in cubes and power band.

Might I suggest a factory aluminum Qjet intake from the 70s that you can still find in salvage yards,ebay etc? Still has the look you are after and all that is needed on the outside is to grind off the big letter A . Paint it orange or blue and no one would know. And since it is aluminum, you could easily do some port work, weld up the heat cross over ,etc. Just a thought.

[rapidride2]

I have a 14057055 'crows-foot' cast iron and recently picked up a 14096242 Bow-tie high rise cast Iron intake as well for a stealth 406 I may do as well down the road. These two will have the 707 applied to experiment with. A painter at my job is going to do them for free. I do know the material is expensive. I'll get a rough quote on real cost after he's done.

I do have the factory aluminum version as well but I'm gonna port that myself before bolting it on. They are supposedly the exact same intake ports as the cast iron version so I'll see how bad i can screw that one up.

[Jeff Lee]

Stock Eliminator racers have been doing this for years. I know several that substantiated .03 quicker with coating alone. It is worth the expense. I thought the idea by Simmo was interesting if your on a budget.
Make sure you block off the heat riser; preferably in the head.