Steve,

      A preheat with a torch and a high nickle rod works on the intakes. I'm guessing (?) that those exhaust manifolds are gray iron too. They didn't start to specialize materials until a number of years later. Now they're all hydroformed weldaments anyhow.

Frank/Rebop

Bristol, In ( by Elkhart) 

Thanks for the replies Ted - I think I'm going to get this done to a pair of manifolds as opposed to using tube headers. The cost won't be too bad and they will probably help with noise reduction inside the car too.

Right now I am awaiting another ECJ-9431 (LH bird manifold) to check out, as the one that was running on the engine showed a crack when tested with penetrant. It is a real crack not a false indication (#$^@*)! It isn't un-repairable - but I'm not too keen on coating a less than perfect specimen. The RH side checks OK. 

Is there a weld procedure published anywhere that is specific to the Ford cast manifolds? In particular - the preheat and suggested filler material. I have a manifold (RH) that has obviously been repaired - and with some finish grinding and close inspection it looks like it will work as a spare. Either "someone" knew the drill and how to do this - or there are some tech spec's I haven't found. When we fix alloy steel castings at our place, we usually take the part up to 450° F soaking, wrap and shield everything but the repair site - then armor up the welder himself with a reflective guard. But we usually know exactly what the casting is made of and other important details. 

  

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona

Although 'toothing' may be a contributor to the flaking, it's minor compared to the heat soaking.  Grinding and sanding in my case were simply done for appearance purposes.  Early on, this engine did considerable idling in heavy traffic and the underhood temperatures were to the extreme.  The headers on my race cars hold up quite well in a racing environment where air flow is always across the headers but whenever dyno testing, the dead air around the headers promotes higher temperatures that ultimately dulls the finish.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Yes Ted thi motor looks great for thi time nand milage. Also  looks like it would clean up really good.  Gerry

Lake Forest California  5th inf 77 Armor Div. VN 68/69

If you put your town and state in your signature

help might be closer than you think.

Ted - Many thanks for the engine photo - you personally may not think that your 272 motor is too pretty after some years of use ......... but I think the "thousand words" is saying the HPC silver is pretty tough stuff and things are working fine. I keep looking at my own handiwork and wondering if its going to stand the test of time - there is a local plating shop guy here that was laughing (at or) with us a couple years back - he claims that if ordinary assembly line practice was good enough to get what we've got (running cars and trucks that are 50+ years old)....... then all our fine finish details are basically art work at this point.

I have personally worked on large scale mining machines that have operated in excess of 140,000 hours - they have been rebuilt many times, sometimes with care and sometimes not. With a little "art work", maintenance and common sense improvement, they perform just as the new ones (only smaller). We are doing the same thing with our toys on a different scale .....

You mentioned having to use a bit of grinding and smoothing prior to coating - is the "tooth" of the cast iron exhaust manifods a basic part of the flaking problem? Or was it the initial high temps you mentioned? Or both? I can understand that "high points" are going to be hard to get a coating to stay on. I'm not really looking for (or expecting) a "chrome" like finish on the exhaust manifolds - more like dull brushed aluminum. If it starts out shiney and dulls down I won't be disappointed. I'm just looking to stave off the rust and maybe get some cooling effect out of the fancy finish at the same time.

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona

Powder coating and ceramic coating differ by lieu of the composition of the material being applied.  Ceramic coating is more metalized in nature thereby making it more heat resistant.  Whereas the least expensive ceramic coatings can withstand 1300°F temperatures, standard process powder coatings will not even come close to this.  I’ve had the opportunity to examine the cylinders of an engine that was run with headers that had been powder coated and they were badly scored due to the powder coating on the inside of the tubes deteriorating upon heating up and being sucked back into the engine during the scavenging cycle.  That was enough for me to be leary of powder coating for headers.  I am aware of some powder coatings that are designed to withstand exhaust system temperatures but I’ve had no experience with these.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Anyone have experience with High Temp powder coating? Isn't this the same type of thing? I have a powder coat setup and was going to do my exhaust with their High Temp stuff. I'm wondering how the durability compares with Jet Hot and MPC types of coatings. Unfortunately I only have an old wall oven to heat in so I can't do large parts. Chuck in NH

Y's guys rule!
Looking for McCullouch VS57 brackets and parts. Also looking for 28 Chrysler series 72 parts. And early Hemi parts.

MoonShadow, 292 w/McCulloch, 28 Chrysler Roadster, 354 Hemi)
Manchester, New Hampshire

Here's a pic of the intake and exhaust manifold with the HPC coating.  Like I said earlier, lots of miles so it's no longer pristine under the hood.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Ted when you have a minute or two could you put a snap shot of what the intake looks like? Thanks. Gerry

Lake Forest California  5th inf 77 Armor Div. VN 68/69

If you put your town and state in your signature

help might be closer than you think.

Thanx for the replies guys - from the sound of it, Ted's gotten some pretty good use out of the ceramic coating on his 55. Right now I have the two manifolds cleaned up and wiped down with "Calyx" cast iron dressing which is a kind of graphite and wax mixture. Cleans up nice and re-news pretty easily (it has done well for what it is) - but I was thinking I'd like to have some heat reduction without going to headers. If I could get "looks great" and heat reduction in the same deal it would be good.

I got some price quotes back - looks like $200 - $220 for a pair (plus shipping). There is an HPC location 80 miles up the road from here at Chandler, AZ and a Jet-Hot at Tempe. 

It also looks like I'd better clean them up real well and dye penetrant check for cracks before spending anything extra on them.

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona