[Wade Congdon]

I got the new HPP yesterday and there is an article on Rodney Butlers's new motor. Interestingly enough he used mild steel headers and coated them with a "special 2000 degree coating from BCD coatings" Anybody familair with this product?

[Goatman]

No, but I hate to see what will happen if it decides to "go away".

It would be interesting to see what the cost comparison is between using such a coating vs. stainless steel.

[Tom Vaught]

When Marty was on the board, He would have mentioned that his headers were mild steel. I am
with Larry though. I do a lot of work with the McLaren company on my Ford turbo projects and I
am glad that Ford is paying for the tubing. Any
left over tubing immediately disappears into someone's tool box. I am also interested in the
coating on Rodney's headers.

[Bigred455]

Excellent points G-man.

[LarryF]

Even if you coat mild steel, the problem goes from oxidation to strength. Mild steel is only good to a little over 1000 F if it is lightly stressed (like headers), but will give up quickly when temps are 1500+ along with the weight of a turbo hanging off it. This doesn't mean it can't work, just that it wouldn't last very long, which helps to justify the higher cost of stainless (Inconel takes a lot more justification, of course - unless you get some "scrap" for free...). Inconel can run at bright orange (2000 F) all day without flinching while you could poke a center punch through mild steel without much effort.

[Tom Vaught]

Larry F,
Even when we run the good stuff we never run a turbo engine without a floating turbo support to
help hold the turbo. When the exhaust is really cooking the pipes are like plastic and tend to move around quite a bit. A simple but correctly designed turbo support really helps out.