Nice Looking Exhaust?

[aerobat95]

Hey guys, is there anything that can be done to the exhaust to make it look better? 

Ray

[Shadrach]

Interesting, the exhaust on my 67 F is a "ball in socket" set up about 8" to 10" shorter and the bracket is on the firewall. It is a much lower profile set-up. In fact, I've never seen a Mooney with an exhaust like that...

[dcrogers11]

Ray-I considered the same thing and wondering what the reg's would say about getting the section of exhaust past the muffler ceramic coated.  I've had some street rod headers coated at Jet-Hot in OKC and they turned out great.  They can coat anything.   

BTW-Windshield mod looks good. 

[jetdriven]

That windsdhield mod looks really nice.  I wonder if anyone has coated their exhaust pipe on a certified airplane?  The Powerflow exhaust tailpipe is coated, and RV guys do it often.  Can we?

[aerobat95]

Interesting. I know my exhaust is the ball in socket as well. I wonder if I would be able to have an A&P cut it shorter and change the bracket?? I would love to have it chromed I think that would look pretty nice. 

[scottfromiowa]

Speaking of exhausts there is a slightly damaged power flow on ebay for about $.5AMU with low hours.  For an M20E.

[MARZ]

I just had my exhaust rebuilt -

I sent everything out except the tailpipe.  Bored with nothing else to do as I waited for the system to come back I decided to clean up and perhaps paint the exhaust pipe with high heat paint.   I started with the old die grinder and abrasive disk and found that the pipe was stainless underneath all the years of gunk.   I switched to a DA with 500 then 1000 grit wet dry and soon had a VERY shiny exhaust pipe.  Looks great with my polished spinner!!!

[fantom]

Over the past few years, Mooney was offering an optional ceramic coated exhaust on new Ovations and Acclaims, so it should be very possible.

[aerobat95]

Hmmmmm....decisions decisions....I like the idea of polishing it. If you were to say want to buy the exhaust pipe...just the ball joint portion...where would one go about doing that?

[aerobat95]

Also what about having an A&P cut it shorter?  Could they remove the turned down portion?  Is that possible?  I am wondering what it looked like leaving the factory.

[jetdriven]

That tailpipe looks like a J tailpipe, and the hanger looks like it was cut from an old tire and is a bit long.  If you shorten that rear hanger the pipe will be more parallel with the fuselage.  Here are pictures of my J exhaust.

 

I am REALLY liking the idea of a ceramic coated tailpipe.  It will look like chrome and never get rusty.  Thing is how can we get it approved? 

[74657]

You guys figure out how to get the approval and I can do the ceramic for you.  I do both the shiny finish as well as the black.  Black has higher heat resistance than the shiny "chrome" does.  I just did a complete system for a guy with a Cozy IV.  Turned out great.

[aerobat95]

So to get it ceramic coated what sort of approval would we neet to get?  I can ask one of the A&P's here and see what they say. 

[aerobat95]

So I asked one of the A&P's who is a IA out here and he seemed to believe that it would just be cosmetic and wouldnt be a problem to do.  Just have an A&P remove and repace the part.  74657.....do you have pics of the shiny finish?  How much would it cost to have something like this done?

[DaV8or]

I'd love a shiney tail pipe too. My guess is that because we don't see it on other's planes, there has to be a hitch. I thought it would be cool to chrome plate the landing gear, but was told all about nitrogen imbrittlement and how chrome plating structurally weakens steel. Perhaps the same would be true for exhaust components. You really don't want your tail pipe to break off in flight. Don't know the answer, wondering if someone does.

[aerobat95]

See that is where the ceramic coating could come in to play.  I know powerflow already has this as an option. 

[74657]

The only plane exhaust I did was done in black.  The ceramic we have is the same stuff that all of the shops use.  I buy it from a company in Texas called TechLine.  It is a commercial product that John Q. can't buy.

The material has a shelf life and I will check if I have some that is still ok to use.  If it is, get the pipe sandblasted, ship it to me with 15 bucks for return shipment and youll be set.

The process is quite simple - Sandblast, Clean with Acetone, Spray on, Bake @ 500F for an hour, polish (we use a ceramic media in a vibratory finisher for this step), ship.

Brandon

[74657]

DaV8or-

Chrome plating would be a bad idea.  The possible hydrogen embrittlement is an issue.  I had a buddy who wanted to chrome the roll hoops of his rail car and the NHRA said no way....  The plating process involves running high current densities of DC current into a part to allow it to receive another metal.  Being that nothing is 100% effiecient, a lot of the "ineffiencies" result in gassing during the process.  Copper and nickel (which are plated first before the chrome) are relatively efficient (between 75-90 percent) whereas the final Chrome layer is 15% at best.....

One more thing - The ceramic, if properly applied, has better salt spray resistance than any decorative chrome does.  It also will not yellow or discolor like chrome will.  If it loses its luster, polishing compound and elbow grease brings the shine right back.  It's pretty neat stuff.

Here is a picture of an old nasty exhaust header that I coated last year.....  I typically do a final polish with my buffing jack after burnishing.  It doesn't appear that this one was buffed yet when the photo was taken.

 

[jetdriven]

I called Aerospace Welding, Inc and talked to someone there.  They said they are getting calls about ceramic coating but they have no approval from the FAA to ceramic coat aircraft exhaust.  He knows Cirrus, Mooney, and Powerflow offered ceramic tailpipes. 


I asked him is it a decorative coating, or does it change the properties of the steel?  He couldnt answer that.  He said it depends on your interpretation of what ceramic coating is.   But an FAA approved repair station cannot do it.

 

So, we are where we though we are.  No data.

[74657]

If you look at the process specs, it essentially is a paint.  I think we can agree that 500F. does nothing to the physical properties of the metal.  We also take special care to take the part from ambient up to 500 gradually and also bring it back to ambient gradually.  I have done some high performance turbo systems (1200 HP pump gas V8's) and there haven't been any peformance issues after applying the ceramic.

Being that the substrate is stainless steel, the finish being applied serves no "functional" purpose in terms of corrosion resistance so I would argue that the finish is purely cosmetic.......  Maybe we have stumbled on a side hustle for me to get into and feed my aviation addiction......

[MARZ]

For those of us with a bit of time and an air DA sander.... this was done with 1000 grit and about 20 to 30 minutes.

[jetdriven]

the last comment in this thread is from powerflow's general manager

 

http://www.powerflowsystems.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52

[DaV8or]

Quote: maropers

For those of us with a bit of time and an air DA sander.... this was done with 1000 grit and about 20 to 30 minutes.

[DaV8or]

Quote: 74657

 Maybe we have stumbled on a side hustle for me to get into and feed my aviation addiction......

[jetdriven]

problem is if you hold yourself out for business you may become a target.