jeremyr62 Posted February 2, 2019 Share Posted February 2, 2019 Decent OE exhaust parts are getting harder to find these days. I have tried a variety of VHT and BBQ type exhaust paints on the headers and balance box and they have all pretty much proved to be not great at standing up to typical Irish and UK weather. They flake off and corrode pretty quickly IME. So I took the plunge and sent a spare system I had to https://www.performance1coatings.com/ based in the UK. They took them as I sent them in cleanish solid painted condition. They blasted them with what looks like alumina grit and them plasma coated them in their volcanic brand of zirconia ceramic. Turned them around quickly and I received them back extremely well packaged. They look OK. They did not coat the ends of the headers. I probably should have removed the exhaust gaskets prior to sending. The coating is very thin indeed and very uniform. The imperfections you can see in the photos are in the underlying steel, not the coating. The acid test is how well they perform. I will swap exhausts in the spring so will have no idea until then. Wasn't cheap but then it is a high tech coating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aficior Posted February 2, 2019 Share Posted February 2, 2019 Congratulations with that beautiful exhaust. Looks very beautiful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Dutchy Posted February 3, 2019 Member Contributer Share Posted February 3, 2019 Nice one! The headers are made from sturdy stuff, unlike the collector box... This looks like a good treatment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremyr62 Posted February 3, 2019 Author Share Posted February 3, 2019 Hard to say. It is incredibly thin. To be fair to the company, corrosion protection isn't their primary focus and how they sell it. It's more to do with heat management although with a coating that thin, even though ceramics have low thermal conductivity, it's still hard to imagine it making a huge difference. Anyway time will tell. I agree, the headers do hold up better but I have quite a few very rusty ones in my collection too. If it works well and does prove a good barrier to corrosion I might get the OE silencers done in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Mohawk Posted February 3, 2019 Member Contributer Share Posted February 3, 2019 I used to have one of these & yes that collector is a real pain. Unfortunately the ceramic coating won’t provide much if any protection to the collector for a few reasons. 1. It’s made of mild steel, so rusts for a pastime, 2. They only costed the outside, so it will still rust away internally, 3. The weld joints are rough in many areas, so you won’t have 100% coverage & rust will spread under the coating from thos seed spots, 4. It’s exposed to all the road grit coming off 5he front wheel, so the coating will be abraided by that & expose the steel creating more seed spots. The coating should take longer than paint to rust under, but once seed spots exist then moisture gets pulled in by capillary action under the coating were rust has started & it spreads. Might have been better spending the money getting a stainless replica collector made, according to https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/vehicle/honda_vf500f2f there are between 200-400 of these left in the UK & between 50-85 on the road. Not huge numbers, but there are many more in the world. It would be good for the aftermarket if manufacturers had to release total number made figures after say 10 years, so the aftermarket has some idea of the numbers out there, as volume dictates cost ! If you ever need a replacement system, then Predator exhausts makes a 4-1 stainless system that I put on mike & had it Dyno run at PDQ where it made 59whp with 55K miles on the clock. Also the torque curve was better with the airbox snorkel in place, so we left it in. Good to see someone keeping these bikes alive, beside Dutchy 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremyr62 Posted February 3, 2019 Author Share Posted February 3, 2019 Yes, you are probably right. However it has to be better than BBQ paint. The bike doesn't get use that much either so I am hopeful it will give me a few years. Getting a stainless collector fabbed would be enormously expensive. Reproducing the internal plumbing is not trivial and you really need to do that to avoid the flat spots. I am aware of the Predator but I heard it wasn't great, but 59hp is a huge number compared to the very limited dyno data I have seen, which normally suggests about 50hp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Mohawk Posted February 3, 2019 Member Contributer Share Posted February 3, 2019 The Predator uses a sort of can as in a 4” wide by 8” long pipe sealed at either end as the collector, the rear pipes drop in at the top so are short, the fronts come in at the front & the exit is on the right end of the pipe. Not the greatest design, but there were no flat spots & the fuelling did not need adjusted, sounds a little fruitier & saved a fair bit of weight. I only went that route, as my collector rusted out & new ones were silly money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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