I was looking to replace the asbestos heat shielding under the Healey floor with something a little more modern. Curtis has a good article on building your own shields here: http://www.britishv8.org/Articles/Muffler-Heat-Shields.htm but I noticed this on Dave Berheimer's Bugeye RX build:
(http://i54.tinypic.com/b3q791.jpg)
It's an embossed aluminum sheet bonded to a fiberglass composite insulation. It's self adhesive and only 3/16" thick. What's nice is I could insulate the outside of the footboxes as well due to the self-adhesive.
(http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j222/healeyrick/IMG_0196.jpg)
Thanks to Dave for letting me know it's available from Summit for about $110 for a 42" x 48" sheet
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/DEI-050503/
I bent and ceramic coated a piece of sheet metal and mounted it to the floor above the mufflers with four bolts. It stands off from the floor about 3/4". Works quite well. The headers, mufflers, resonator and pipes are also ceramic coated, done in a kitchen oven with an insulated extension over the oven door.
Exhaust06600x450.jpg
Phil, where did you get your ceramic material?
JB
-- moved topic --
Jim, I think that the "Lizard Skin" ceramic coating would enhance any fabricated heat/exhaust shield made. My 2 cents.
Here's their link that show quite a few details/applications. http://www.lizardskin.com/
Jacques
As far as I can tell, that stuff is just paint with ceramic microspheres mixed in. Availability of microspheres has ballooned in the last year or two and they are now available at low cost in reasonable quantities for applications such as house paint. So no real need to pay premium prices for what you can mix at home.
I was interested in the ceramic coating that Phil used. Since he said he baked it I suspect it may be the same thing used to coat headers and I liked his method for enlarging his oven. I might try that if I find a good source for the material, used ovens can usually be found cheap.
Another thought, how about microspheres mixed into the ceramic coating for the headers? Should be extremely effective.
JB
Jim,
I bought some microspheres from here: http://www.hytechsales.com/ and mixed them with some DP40 primer and painted the interior floorpans, footboxes, etc of my Healey. I'm throwing so much insulation at this thing, it will be hard to tell which one is effective. Here's a good thread on Lizard Skin alternatives: http://www.chevytalk.org/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/160411/ From what I've read, SwainTech's "White Lightning" ceramic coating seems to have the best results for header coating: http://www.swaintech.com/store.asp?pid=10969