Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 Wrapped headers, removed cats and exhaust baffles

Pictures, please? 😎

Somewhat visible here-I'll take better photos later today.

Nice idea!

I too think getting heat out of the pipes rather than holding it into the pipes is a better idea and if a person wants to protect their turn signal lamps I suspect a heat shield for each lamp could be made out of aluminum tubing.

Here’s how they work—ceramic coatings and exhaust wraps help contain the gaseous heat within your exhaust pipes. This causes the gasses to heat up and expand. Since the exhaust gas is trapped within the system, it expands the only direction it can—out of the tailpipe. As a result, exhaust flow is boosted, allowing a rush of fresh air to enter the engine’s cylinders, increasing horsepower. Both ceramic coated headers and exhaust wraps improve horsepower, however, ceramic coating is better than exhaust wrap as it does not trap moisture although more costly. The ceramic coating should dull over time.

Here's a more representative photo of the ceramic coated headpipes. From my experience with this particular coating product from my local powder coater, it takes thousands of miles over several years to show appreciable dulling. On my occasionally tracked Lotus Elan (so much more high rpm running) the dulling effect occurred more rapidly than on my more sedately driven E-type. Both of those cars have the ceramic over stainless steel tubular manifolds, so similar to the Morgan.

These pipes have only a few minutes of idling time on them to check for leaks. It will be a couple of months before the snow is gone and roads are clear enough for a real run in.

One of the downsides to coating the head pipes is the color mismatch with the rest of the stainless exhaust. The ceramic coating is closer to polished aluminum (whiter) than the more bluish-brown of the stainless. The woven mesh of the flex couplings were simply masked off during the coating process, btw.

Looks very nice, Steve! 👍

+1 , very nice looking! Can I assume that it could be a different color if desired, although i like what you have done.

Is it easier to clean than stainless?

My takeaway: The caveat to ceramic or wrap is that increased heat and expansion is counter-productive without creating a clear pathway for escape in an already restrictive system. Hence removal of cats/baffles.

A corollary I've heard is that the temperature at the tip of the exhaust should be hot, such that only one finger's width can tolerate the heat. And that's how you'll know if the exhaust is flowing freely. Maybe just an old 'gear head's' tail....

Steve - is this a screened vented cover? Source info? Sure beats wedging it open at the bottom.

Answering a couple of questions:

The ceramic coating is available in a few colors, including black, which vary by manufacturer. The powder coater you use to do the coating will impact the choices available to you.

The coating is so much easier to maintain than bare stainless, which is why I used it on my other cars. No bluing, no discoloration, no polishing. Basically you do nothing but wash it once in awhile to remove bugs and other detritus.

As for the screened cover, at the moment it is cosmetic only. My intent is to find a suitable waterproof filtering medium to insert under the perforated cover, then place holes in the S&S emblem area. The pre-perforated cover is 1/16" thick stainless I bought online for a few dollars and has the edges peened over to give it the 3 dimensional look.