I am looking to replace the badly chipped and leaking manifolds on my 3.8S. There are two finishes available: vitreous enameled or Porcelain. Since my car is a driver and there is high heat in the engine compartment, which finish would be the best to hold up and not crack.
I went with porcelain on my MKII and they’ve lasted 20 years now with no cracks.
So I did the same on my 150.
But it has yet to run so can’t say if I’ve just been lucky…
I went with Prairie Porcelain on my XK120.
I went with Jet-Hot enamel on my '38 SS.
Both seem to be holding up, though I don’t drive them in the pouring rain.
How long and how many miles on the 120 manifolds?
AFAIK, JetHot’s not affected by water.
They look really good. One company in the uk were doing a recoat a while ago, but dropped it due to product failure. Silly question these are in the USA right? Can you let me in on the price?
Mine were $220 to redo, but that was in 1993.
I’d guess they’re a bit more today…
On my XK120 by Prairie Porcelain it was about $500 four years ago.
My SS by Jet-Hot was $400 last winter.
You’ll need an oxy/acetylene torch and vise grips to get the rusted studs out.
One key is to prep them yourself with sanding discs, you’ll get a better surface finish.
I’m happy with both jobs.
The ones on your SS look really good. Don’t think there’s anyone doing this on our side of the pond currently. Unless someone knows different?
Zircotec does a lot of automotive exhaust and hi-temp coatings in the UK. I understand their main business focused on industrial applications like power plants and nuclear reactors, but they branched out into the automotive a few years ago. There’s a USA branch too, but home base is the UK I believe.
Dave
check out the recent porcelain repair blog in the xke section
Sorry just found this in junk box. I think they were around £350 per pair. The company was Zircotec