The twin parts have made their way to ceramic and thermal coating. I'll try and make this as interesting as possible:
Last week, I met a person who has a passion for what they do. Everyone who's good at their craft or trade usually has some manor of enthusiasm for their profession. This individual tops that by a measure that I don't often see.
Per ED's recommendation, I found my way down to Zoofactory Coatings to have my twins and pipes finished. While Chris or Glenn would have been happy to take care of this for me, I was very specific about what I wanted done and we came to the conclusion that due to the location of his shop, I'd drop off the parts and speak with the guys at the Zoo.
This is where I met the passionate soul mentioned above.
I spoke with Chris at Zoofactory on the phone several times before we met. He patiently detailed the process and painstaking steps that go into his ceramic and thermal coatings. I don't know how other shops do it, but I can tell you this; this cat believes in what he does and does it to a "T."
The mess of parts I dropped off at Zoofactory:
Starting with a baking process that removes all oils in the metal, the parts are never touched again by human hands till the coating is complete. After careful masking, the parts go through various media and hand finishing before the series of ceramic and thermal coatings are applied. Once coated to his satisfaction, the parts are loaded into an oven large enough to park a truck in and baked like Tollhouse cookies till the coating thoroughly bonds to the prepared surface. When the adhesion is complete and the parts cool, they are placed in a vibratory polisher with ceramic bead media. After the bulk of the polishing is done, each and every piece is hand polished to Chris's satisfaction before being wrapped and boxed for pickup. I think I can work with this guy. LOL
Parts mocked up in functional position. Chris doesn't often get to see how things bolt together and function. This permitted some insightful ideas for combining his coating offerings.
What impressed me the most is the degree of owner involvement in the production process. When I stepped in the door, Chris was seated at a table behind the counter with ear buds in, jamming on his Ipod, hand polishing parts for the previous customer. Several times during my visit, he paused our tour to answer the phone or tend to parts in the vibratory polisher. His involvement in his product is by choice, not necessity.
Within the last few weeks, Zoofactory scored a government contract to apply ceramic coatings to the recoil springs of Howitzer cannons for our military. Several pallets of these springs were in the loading dock during my visit. It could have just as easily been coils for 3500 Dodge Ram pickups judging from their size. Apparently the military likes their bling, too.
Every bit and piece I left at Zoofactory.
So, what did I get myself into? Every piece that touches exhaust will be ceramic coated in black or chrome/sliver to keep the heat energy in and spinning turbines. The charge air piping will sport a thermal dissipant (sp?) coating that encourages any heat generated through compression to be dispelled at a rate greater than that of normal paint or powder coat. While providing this functional benefit, it also offers a bit of a different look and prevents corrosion.
We'll let the dyno see what it thinks.
An interesting factoid I heard while there: Chris (The Zoofactory Chris) has seen this setup offer over the road trucks 3/10ths of a mile per gallon with no other changes. In a performance application like this, he made no concrete claims or attempts to pull numbers out of thin air. With the functional attributes of these coatings, it should play well with Engineered Diesel's goal of a quickly rising, broad power curve.
Some coated parts in process for another builder that will debut at a Kentucky event in a couple weeks. Not quite finished, but lookin' good. I don't know who's they are (wink wink), but it isn't a Cummins.
I'll be picking up the parts Wednesday morning with hopes of having this beast put back together a week later.
Good thing Glenn has fast hands. :hehe: