You won't hurt the hood. I have tried for the last 6 years or so. Thats why there is no shields on my Vig. Even 100f track day. The manifold will stay looking nice its 304 stainless.
I did a custom shield for one that went to desert. If you wrap the first part of the downpipe it is the main offender. Coating just the outside. The silver turns flat and still looks ok. The black ceramic turned brown-ish.

 

Thanks Nick.

So to clarify, if I were to go with black ceramic coating (either the exhausting housing or the DP and mani), it would turn browish.

While wrapping (DEI?) only the DP would turn the uncoated parts flat silver?

How has the coating performed on the Dark Viggen held up?

Thanks,
Matt

 

Wrap the first foot of the downpipe or so. Up to, NOT including the o2s. I found this caused them to run a bit warmer for 30m sessions at full power in the max heat. But realistically will never get to that heat load on the road.

Ceramic coat. Go silver or nothing. It ages/cures/bakes to a flat whiter silver. The black cures to a flat brownish warm tone. It fights the other black parts. It holds up perfect. ( I can dig up pics but they are on my other machine thats having a bad week w hard drives.) The compressor is just regular texture powdercoat.

If I had the $$ would be a Stainless Tial housing on there and just let it patina to nice golden stainless. The 3076GTX with V-band Tial housing will be the next turbo but hard to justify 1300 when its plenty fast now.

 

So that nice viggen dark project doesn't look as nice under teh hood anymore? Didn't you just do the same type of look on a convertible viggen for a customer?

You're saying that the clean look that those cars have turns to a brown color over time?

 

No, it looks great coating is still 100% just being a perfectionist. Like the black silicone is never 100% black. Maybe its because my Grandfather is a graphic designer and taught among others color theory at a few colleges.
After: (You can tell after hours of tuning the stainless v-band took some color. )

Before:

 

Ok, so you are simply stating that over the course of a few years heat can cause this ceramic coating to turn more of a brown color... In those pictures shown the ceramic still appears to be more black than brown? I can see where the V-band clamp has change but other than that???

With mdegracia's question the best method would be to wrap the downpipe for better underhood temps...

 

I used Techline black, had the manifold professionally sand blasted prior to application, and it still turned from a muted matte black to a basic cast iron color after several months.

 

All good advice.

With that being said, I decided to order one of these kits off Amazon. Comes with enough wrap to complete the first leg of the DP too. Plus it has "carbon fiber" look! Yes! Ha!

Titanium Turbo Shield 010140 | Purchase DEI, CryO2, Ny-Trex, Boom Mat & SPA Turbo Products | Design Engineering, Inc. - Thermal Performance Products

 

No all the changes on ceramic happen depending on heat cycle. Then if you overheat it it changes more on the black. Silver just gets flat and heads to white.

More apparent here in fluorescent light. This is a different (cheaper coating) Thats my 3076 we had on the drag car with the flapper wired shut and asking 110% of it. Interestingly thats also the better DEI /Black/ wrap too.

Have the ALU wastegate bracket waiting on machine time too.

 

If you order a top mount, do you have to get the new intake pipe separately?

 

?

 

If you are using PC/Ceramic for looks then use whatever you like, if you want the best where these coatings actually do something then use swaintech. The DP in the second pic is damn close to the delivery pipe so I would assume the wrap is there so it doesn't melt. The problem with some ceramic coatings like the high temp satin is that it scratches very easily, so be careful when installing. Those are damn pretty and it must be nice living in an area where smog checks don't come into play, visually speaking.

 

That heat issue is what I originally thought of, and also why there is no shield on my car. since -05 when I installed it there has been no extra wear on the hoses. Has more clearance than you can see from that angle.

As far as testing goes that just requires a extra test to check loaded emissions etc.

 

I've got a ceramic coated stock manifold on my Aero...still shiny for the most part but there are a few dull spots.