I sent my headers into you guys about 9 months ago to be coated and they
are cracking. I know you guys have a good repuation and was wondering if I
payed for shipping would you re-coat them at no additional charge. If you
can please let me know and i will be glad to put a good word out on
Honda-tech. Some other people on there have had problems with cracking and
post up threads on why or why not to get them coated by swain. I rather
contact you guys first befor posting any opinion i may have because that
could hurt your business. Thanks alot for your time and here is a link to
the thread so you can see for yourself.

THIS IS WHAT THEY RESPONDED


Thanks for writing. Here is the summary of header coatings. There is our
coating which is a multi-layered, true ceramic thermal barrier coating. The
melting point of the material is over 3,000 degrees F. The primary purpose
of the coating is to keep heat inside of exhaust parts to let the motor
breathe as efficiently as possible. It will also keep underhood
temperatures down and prevent corrosion.

The other type of coating is the Jet Hot type. Many others do that type,
but Jet Hot tends to be the best. The Jet Hot is a paint based process that
will add some ceramic to it so it does offer some heat insulation. However,
since it is essentially a high temperature paint, those coatings are
primarily for cosmetic purposes. Because they are paints, they do burn off
at relatively low temperatures for exhaust parts, typically in the 1,000 to
1,200 degrees F range.

With a true ceramic like we offer, you cannot burn it off. What can happen
is you can get your header, manifold, turbo, etc. hot enough that it will
expand more than what the ceramic can expand. If this occurs, the very top
layer of the coating which is the most pure ceramic can fracture and even
peel off in some areas. If this does happen, you will still have the
under-layers of coating doing a good functional job.

We cannot control or predict when this will happen. We do make people aware
of this potential though, especially on turbo cars that get into this
situation more than anybody else. Though it is rare, it can happen. If it
does happen to a true ceramic, Jet Hot or anybody else's coating would have
been gone long before that and nothing would be left. They do offer a
warranty, but put the operating temperature so low that for most people, the
warranty is no good because most cars operate above their stated limits for
the coating rendering the warranty worthless. Talk to some people who have
tried to use the warranty and they will confirm this. Don't get me wrong,
Jet Hot usually does good work, but they will cover their tails because they
know the limits of their coating.

So, what likely happened is your part did expand more than what the very top
layer of coating can expand. This cracked the very top layer of the coating
which is the most pure ceramic. Below that is still about .010" of good
coating left and since it is not a pure of a ceramic as what is on the very
top layer, it will expand and contract with the part much better. You will
still have a coating on the pipe better than any other coating, but the very
top layer has been effected.

If you want to send them back, we can touch up those areas, but if you got
hot enough to do it once, there is a good chance it will happen again. If
you do send the part back. Just be sure to drop me a note ahead of time so
I can look for it.

The bottom line is even if you fracture that top layer, you still have
plenty of effective thermal barrier available. Turbo applications are
difficult applications because of the heat. Everything has a limit. Even
if you reach the limit of our coating, it will give you better protection
than anything else out there. It was disheartening to see some of the
comments on the link you gave me. If they did take the time to contact us,
we could have explained this to them. If they took the time to do real
testing like a temperature gun, they would see they still have a very
effective thermal barrier.

Let me know what you want to do. I will be in and out quite a bit over the
next couple of days, but I will definitely get back to you when I have a
chance.


OVERALL A VERY NICE GUY TO DEAL WITH IF I GET ANYTHING ELSE COATED I'LL MAKE SURE AND GO TO SWAIN