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Greetings,

Has anyone had their intake/exhaust manifold reporcelained? The manifold on my '30 733 is in need of a new coating which I would rather do than just applying the paints that are available/

Thanks
Gene

Sure, there are several outfits that reporcelanize manifolds, it's a pretty common item in engine restoration. For frequent drivers today's procelain doesn't hold up more than a few years on the exhaust manifold (fine on the intake) so some people myself included went for "Jet Coat" last time. The downside is that it's black, not blue/black, and it is only semi-gloss. Upside is that it's much more durable. If you're doing a show car, porcelain is the only acceptable way to go.

You could consider:

Praire Auto Porcelain
17250 Cannon City Blvd
Faorbault, MN 507-334-9309

Thanks, I'll check in with them.

That address should read Faribault, Minnesota.

Dislexia strikes again!

Thanks, have you seen work done by them?

Yes, most recently a pair of 36 Twelve manifolds. The tricky part is that of course curing the porcelain requires heat which may (or may not) warp the manifolds a bit (or they could have been warped beforehand). It takes a careful and experienced shop to surface grind them flat again without chipping the porcelain at the edges. The ones in question were surface ground post-porcelainizing by Automotive Restorations here in New Jersey.

We had the 734 speedster exhaust manifold ceramic coated, inside and out.

Had my '30 manifold done by them, was falling off inside two years. They said at the time very small imperfections (such as rust pitting over the many years) would lead to less life for the finish.

John Oder

That's why most tour cars just porcelainize the intake, and use an alternative on the exhaust. And why show car manifolds look so good, they rarely run long enough to get extreme heat/cool cyles. When I first did my 34 exhaust some 40 years ago with porcelain, I carefully blasted deep into the pits, did a bit of filing and grinding to eliminate most of them; it looked good for about 5 years (5000 miles), cracking first showing up in the places were the temperatures were the most extreme.