Jonohhh
True Classic
A ceramic coating optimized for heat insulation can and will reduce radiant heat pretty moderately - but not all types of coatings provide this benefit, and quite a few coatings on the market don't.
It's actually possible to get the cylinder head combustion chambers ceramic coated to yield an improvement in thermal efficiency and power, but I digress.
Wraps...
...as stated, there are plenty of reasons that wraps are not always a smart idea. First, unlike ceramic coating which covers everything, wrap almost always insulates unevenly across the part, introducing a temperature gradient and therefore stress. In some cases these stresses can be significant enough to crack the headers, depending on how well they're made.
Additionally, they typically are far more effective at insulating, and in applications with high EGTs, can cause the header to get hot enough that the header experiences even more thermal strains.
However, liberal use of heat shielding and blankets should be effective af insulating the inlet manifold from exhaust heat in our applications - both of these still allow the header to dissipate heat to some degree.
In terms of power. Meh. On an NA engine, there's little to nothing to be gained. This is not the case on turbochargers, however as retaining as much energy as possible in the exhaust stream pre turbo improves performance.
It's actually possible to get the cylinder head combustion chambers ceramic coated to yield an improvement in thermal efficiency and power, but I digress.
Wraps...
...as stated, there are plenty of reasons that wraps are not always a smart idea. First, unlike ceramic coating which covers everything, wrap almost always insulates unevenly across the part, introducing a temperature gradient and therefore stress. In some cases these stresses can be significant enough to crack the headers, depending on how well they're made.
Additionally, they typically are far more effective at insulating, and in applications with high EGTs, can cause the header to get hot enough that the header experiences even more thermal strains.
However, liberal use of heat shielding and blankets should be effective af insulating the inlet manifold from exhaust heat in our applications - both of these still allow the header to dissipate heat to some degree.
In terms of power. Meh. On an NA engine, there's little to nothing to be gained. This is not the case on turbochargers, however as retaining as much energy as possible in the exhaust stream pre turbo improves performance.