Thermal coating Akra pipes.

[1MORELAP]

Hi:

I am thinking of thermal coating my Akra pipes. Pipes that attach to the rear mufflers. Since they sit close to the rear diff, there maybe a benefit of doing so.

I do not know if coating titanium is even possible. Other thoughts. I guess it will cost $100 or so.

[LateBraking]

Dunno if it's possible or not, but I personally wouldn't. Have you thought of just using Thermo-Tec heat clamps? They clamp on to your Akrapovic, and they can be positioned in the same fashion as the OEM ones are on the OEM muffler pipes, and they seem to be the most popular option.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/THE-11650

[1MORELAP]

Interesting idea. But why not the more elegant approach - http://www.performancecoatings.com/index2.html ?

[mfeltiii]

What length have people been using for the heat clamps?

[LateBraking]

Originally Posted by 1MORELAP

Interesting idea. But why not the more elegant approach - http://www.performancecoatings.com/index2.html ?

Dunno, I guess people just want to play it safe (like me ). Even the M3 GT4 comes OEM with thermal wrap, rather than a type of coating. I guess people just figure that if the OEM muffler comes with heat shields, and the OEM GT4 comes with thermal wrap, then those are safe ideas to play with.

Hey, if you did it, you'd be the first guy to do it. Uniqueness ftw. If you pattern it it could look cool.

Originally Posted by mfeltiii

What length have people been using for the heat clamps?

1 ft. length. Part #11600 it says on the box.

[1MORELAP]

I emailed them to see if titanium can be coated. I coated my Cayman exhaust: (ALL of it)

[LateBraking]

Originally Posted by 1MORELAP

I just realized that mufflers and the pipes are already connected. For some reason I thought I could just coat the connecting pipes. Coating the entire slip on exhaust will be $$$... I guess $300 to $500.

I will double check if the pipes are welded onto the muffler, if so, I am going with the shields. If I can coat just the connecting pipes - I will do that.

Now, if I get the downpipes and x-pipe, that will be a different story. I am likely to coat that.

Tomasz

They are welded together. It's one of the things that I love about Akrapovic: The welds are gorgeous, and I could stare at them all day....

If you get them to mask off the muffler, possibly doable? It looks kind of like this ~<O where ~< is the connecting pipe portion and O being the muffler body and tips and beyond. Can you get them to just mask off the O portion and paint just the ~< portion?

[Blade929]

You can also just use thermal wrap. Mine is holding up very well. i had the oem exhaust both ceramically coated and then I thermal wrapped it. The brand I used was heat shield products. I used the 2x50 premium and then sprayed it with the Thermo-tec paint once it was wrapped.

http://www.heatshieldproducts.com/exhaust_wrap.php

[tom @ eas]

Don't really see a need unless your M3 is expected to spend a considerable amount of time at the track.



Here's the Akrapovic system after 2 weeks of use, the blueing will show the hotspots with no discoloration present after the resonators.

[1MORELAP]

As others have posted, titanium can be coated. But also as posted, I am not convinced I need to. I think a wrap maybe all I need.

[1MORELAP]

And here is what I did:

[ki__]

that burnt look is really nice, they should offer tips like that from akra. It would look great.

[kitw]

Originally Posted by BlacknRedi

that burnt look is really nice, they should offer tips like that from akra. It would look great.

That's the challenge, if you drive hard enough and fast enough, you will get blued tips