What protects factory heat exchangers from rusting?
 

I just cleaned a lot of oil/dirt off my factory (3.2) heat exchangers and it occurred to me that this sludge may have been the only protective coating it had. Are these things galvanized or were they painted from the factory? What do you all do to protect them?

Was considering a zinc phosphate coating like picklex 20.

I have the same question. I picked up a set of pre 74 heat exchangers from another Pelican and they were blasted and cleaned up already. Don't know if there is a high temp paint or coating I should apply to keep them from rusting away.

How about ceramic coating them? There is a local shop that does very good PCoating and CCoating here in town. Anyone know?

Personally I do not plan on removing the heat exchanges unless absolutely necessary. Based on the horror stories of snapped fasteners, I'm going to protect it in place as best I can.

Picklex will be temporary at best. Easier to remove now than later, but if your not keeping the car long term let the next poor sucker deal with it if you are not willing to do it.

low grade stainless.

Interesting... so there is some built in corrosion protection but not enough to stand up to extended salt exposure etc?

Living in SoCal helps. No rust/zero on anything.

no coating, just the stainless steel, which still does corrode, only slower than steel. add that to all the heat cycles and water/salt/oils/road gunk and then you get pitting. the real challenge is cleaning the inside.

that sounds good, do they sell it at Autozone?