Posted: Thu May 29, 2003 12:09 pm
Okay, let me see if I can help with this one:
Jet-Hot or ceramic coating are your two best options. I'd drop Kymco a line to see who does their ceramic coating, and see if there is a warranty. Kymco does seem to stand behind their products, and I've had good luck with their customer service.
That being said, POR-20 is a good product. I've used it on exhaust systems before to good effect. If you could figure a way to get it inside the pipes completely and evenly, you'd do well, as exhaust systems that I've worked with tend to rust from the inside out.
If you're concerned about keeping the engine compartment cooler, do two things: one, make sure you have a good seal around your engine tin, and two, get some header wrap and wrap your headers. You will get a small gain in horsepower from doing this as well, due to your exhaust gases not cooling as fast and creating less back pressure. However, if you do decide to go with header wrap, make sure your exhaust system is protected in some manner - ceramic, Jet-Hot, POR-20, something. Header wrap on a bare steel or merely painted exhaust system will speed the development of rust, quite surprisingly so.
Powdercoating your engine tin is a great thing. POR-20 isn't worth doing there, because your tin doesn't get hot enough for it to cure properly. I'm not sure on the color thing, you'll have to get a materials engineer to tell you about that one. Whatever you do find out about the colors, just have your tins powdercoated that color. (I've been hanging out with a powdercoater lately - he has over 800 colors available, I'm sure silver and white are amongst them.) If you decide not to do powdercoat on your tin, you can do them in POR-15, which doesn't require the heat to cure, or in regular automotive paint. I've done several by just painting the tin the same color as the car, using the same paint, with no adverse effects.
Good luck.
Jet-Hot or ceramic coating are your two best options. I'd drop Kymco a line to see who does their ceramic coating, and see if there is a warranty. Kymco does seem to stand behind their products, and I've had good luck with their customer service.
That being said, POR-20 is a good product. I've used it on exhaust systems before to good effect. If you could figure a way to get it inside the pipes completely and evenly, you'd do well, as exhaust systems that I've worked with tend to rust from the inside out.
If you're concerned about keeping the engine compartment cooler, do two things: one, make sure you have a good seal around your engine tin, and two, get some header wrap and wrap your headers. You will get a small gain in horsepower from doing this as well, due to your exhaust gases not cooling as fast and creating less back pressure. However, if you do decide to go with header wrap, make sure your exhaust system is protected in some manner - ceramic, Jet-Hot, POR-20, something. Header wrap on a bare steel or merely painted exhaust system will speed the development of rust, quite surprisingly so.
Powdercoating your engine tin is a great thing. POR-20 isn't worth doing there, because your tin doesn't get hot enough for it to cure properly. I'm not sure on the color thing, you'll have to get a materials engineer to tell you about that one. Whatever you do find out about the colors, just have your tins powdercoated that color. (I've been hanging out with a powdercoater lately - he has over 800 colors available, I'm sure silver and white are amongst them.) If you decide not to do powdercoat on your tin, you can do them in POR-15, which doesn't require the heat to cure, or in regular automotive paint. I've done several by just painting the tin the same color as the car, using the same paint, with no adverse effects.
Good luck.