No ersatz diamonds here, but the Zirconia based coating from Zircotec in the UK will help your vehicle be more durable and powerful. The Zircotec ceramic coating was developed for the nuclear industry and has been proven in automotive applications by several Formula 1 teams. The purpose of the coating is to increase engine efficiency, improve aesthetics and improve thermal management. Older cars don't have the ability to manage the heat generated by their powertrain as effectively as more modern designs. There are also those pesky laws of thermodynamics and physics – a turbocharger housing is going to get bloody hot, no matter what. With a cherry red turbo snail, you'd best make sure anything that can burn or melt is well insulated. Coating parts like exhaust manifolds will improve engine efficiency by keeping the ambient temperature of the engine bay down, a by-product of which is lower intake plumbing temperatures. Turbocharged engines will also see a performance increase. The turbine is driven by the expansion of exhaust gas as it cools, and keeping the heat in the exhaust stream allows the turbos to spool harder. Engine blocks and intake manifolds also see benefits when coated, due to better insulation.
The Zircotec coating is so good at providing a thermal barrier that a motorcycle racing team discovered they could remove exhaust pipes without gloves, while the gasses coursing through the pipes were, uh, piping hot. The Zircotec coating sounds like it's well-suited to keeping your vintage sports car from cooking you, or making sure that the 502 you stuffed in your Chevette doesn't blister the paint on the quarter panels due to heat coming off the headers. We'd love to try it out and see for ourselves. No longer burning our fingerprints off on the hot parts underhood sounds like it might be worth the shipping.
More photos after the jump.
[Source: gizmag.com]
GM shrinks Volt's gas tank, range drops from 600 to 360 miles
MINI dealers to sell Alfa Romeos in the U.S.
Honda to reveal OSM open-top concept in London
With crisis looming, GM may unveil Volt for 100th anniversary
Next BMW M5 will nix V10 in favor of twin-turbo V8
In the Autoblog Garage: 2009 Lincoln MKS
Track Test: 2008 Roush 427R Trak Pak Mustang
In the Autoblog Garage: 2008 Porsche Cayman S
First Drive: 2009 Chevrolet Traverse
In the Autoblog Garage: 2008 Mazda MX-5 Miata Retractable Hard Top
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
BOB @ Dec 31st 2006 3:55PM
SORRY - this just sounds like a love letter to a product, not something that helps us understand. What is your point??
You allude to consumer use on older cars, I think.
HOW ABOUT telling us..........
-- how it is applied?
-- some idea of the cost?
-- examples we can relate to (such as Joe Blow coated his turbo for $207 dollars, now has 15 more horses)
-- and so on
OR: is this just something to watch for coming up in new cars and racing cars??
(PS -- I was trying to figure out how that first, run-on paragraph could be changed to a few paragraphs in readable English, but I gave up.)
JasonSK @ Dec 31st 2006 4:11PM
How about you go find out yourself, god, everybody wants to be spoon fed.
Jay @ Dec 31st 2006 4:19PM
Geez, BOB. You sure are whiny. Shouldn't you be frequenting a website geared more toward knitting or Beanie Babies?
chuck goolsbee @ Dec 31st 2006 4:21PM
oooh, an old Aston-Martin inline Six there. Very pretty.
I don't like the dull grey look of the stuff though. Do they offer gloss black or silver?
--chuck
Tom @ Dec 31st 2006 5:13PM
Some of the information such as how it is applied is probably a proprietary secret.
The Duke @ Dec 31st 2006 5:19PM
Yeah, Jet Hot, among others, has been doing this for 20 years, what's the big deal?
Car videos & Motorcycle videos @ Dec 31st 2006 5:25PM
I have seen this done on a few Porsche 911 turbo headers.
Jean @ Dec 31st 2006 5:36PM
Why does everbody think there an English teacher???
BOB @ Dec 31st 2006 5:52PM
#8--ET AL --
I honestly could not follow what he was trying to write, or understand what the application meant to us regular drivers. I meant to give the author a wakeup call to write so he can be understood, and not just gush over a press release, which I think is not polite to the readers.
THAT is a hard to forgive quality for an article - ignorant spelling or whatever in the comments is not personal to me, but not being able to find the sense of the piece IS about me.
T_R_J @ Dec 31st 2006 6:48PM
I'm going to have to side w/ BOB on this one. If I didn't know better I'd say someone PAID the author to write that post.
AutoFan @ Jan 1st 2007 2:12AM
I don't think he was paid to write it. But I do think he just regurgitated a press release. Evidence? It's a British company, and he said something about a part getting "bloody" hot. C'mon, at least translate it to American slang!
Dan @ Jan 1st 2007 11:41AM
Came up with the "bloody hot" gem all on my own. Yes, I did it as a tip of the hat to their UK origins.
I know that Jet Hot and other ceramic coatings have been around for a long time, but there are very few coatings suitable for turbocharger housings and such. Most flake off from the extreme heat cycling.
TigerMil @ Jan 1st 2007 11:44AM
I'm waiting to see how it works on the street. If it's like thermotape, it just concentrates heat (and temp!) inside the header and the header proceeds to dissolve or rust/oxidize. Jet Hot seems to work if the ceramic lines the header, but sooner or later the ceramic cracks and there goes the metal. Maybe it will work for inconel headers but have you priced inconel lately!!!???. Maybe titanium headers with zircotek (try google, right now it's in UK and Europe only) will work but I won't hold my breath for HewHessHay.
glitched @ Jan 1st 2007 11:44PM
I to felt lost as I read this article, also...
"The turbine is driven by the expansion of exhaust gas as it cools"
ummm... exhaust gas expands as it cools?
Dan @ Jan 2nd 2007 9:25AM
Yes, exhaust cools and expands as it goes from high pressure to low while exiting the cylinder.