Sone97
Junior Member
Been in the process of freshening up the engine bay on the Mustang ('06 GT). As far as mods go, it's an Airaid + tune (so it's fairly stock beyond that minus suspension mods) I installed the Ford Racing blue cam covers a few years back and am sort of tying in a blue theme under hood. One mention on those, installing them I snagged the small space in the A in Racing on the computer passenger side, chipped it off. Been a few years now, but the other day I was blowing accumulated debris off around the coils and I noticed the entire G just flapping away.
To my surprise they are losing the blue paint within the lettering from heat cycles. Disappointing considering the cost of the things (so heads up with that if considering a set) Mostly I've just been toying around with stuff, added billet idler pulleys, painted the water pump pulley, alternator bracket, radiator hose support bracket (stuff like that) VHT 'Ford Light Blue'
I ordered MSD coils (red) a while ago (zero issues) I would have preferred blue MSD coils which I couldn't locate at the time. They are the same coils as the red, yet retail for substantially more - $435 bucks last I checked. Little beyond budget, so I yanked each one, masked them off and plasti-dipped them blue. Some intricate spots on the coils are impossible to spray bomb, so I touched those areas up with plasti-dip from a brush. Overall pleased (looks like they came that way) and the rubberized coating has held fine so far.
I'm also going to wire down the damper and brush paint it with either Rustoleum satin black, or a two-tone of that with Rustoleum Ford tractor blue gloss, which is a pretty exact match to the VHT spray bomb blue (I don't want to spray bomb the damper) Anyway (the factory cast iron manifolds)...I had considered building wheel cribs to install headers, but then decided against it considering my uptight city emissions laws (and it's quite the involved task anyway) as many here I'm sure are already aware. It seems not worth it really for 'shorties' vs the factory manifolds. Long tubes require mid-pipe and that's just more cost (and effort) on top of everything I've already invested into the car. That would be pushing the budget way out for me.
So in a day or two here I'm going to wire the surface rust down best I can and apply a product called Calyx to the manifolds. It's a graphite based compound (comes in a little container) and you simply hand rub (or brush/rag apply) it into the cast iron and it bakes in to set. It leaves the manifolds looking like they just rolled off the assembly line. There's a similar product called 'Hot Stuff' from Eastwood if I remember correct. C2/C3 vette owners (mostly for whatever reason, and where I first learned about it) seem to swear by the stuff.
It's cheap (about 20 bucks) and the modest little container is enough to last for years and multiple applications. I guess (if you could call it the catch) applied and set, it will rub off to a small extent on your hands if you for whatever reason touch at the manifolds (it remains in that state always upon application no matter how baked in) But it wont simply wipe off altogether under such a scenario. It sets into the pores of the cast iron and is lasting. I'm curious if anybody has ever had any experience or is familiar with this product? What I'm really curious of is what effect water would have on the stuff (primarily if it produces runs or drips)
Maybe I should test that one out before applying it all over the manifolds. Long ramble here, but if anybody is curious, I will upload a shot of the bay tomorrow if any interest in that so you can all thumbs me up (or have a good laugh at my expense) Whatever works.
To my surprise they are losing the blue paint within the lettering from heat cycles. Disappointing considering the cost of the things (so heads up with that if considering a set) Mostly I've just been toying around with stuff, added billet idler pulleys, painted the water pump pulley, alternator bracket, radiator hose support bracket (stuff like that) VHT 'Ford Light Blue'
I ordered MSD coils (red) a while ago (zero issues) I would have preferred blue MSD coils which I couldn't locate at the time. They are the same coils as the red, yet retail for substantially more - $435 bucks last I checked. Little beyond budget, so I yanked each one, masked them off and plasti-dipped them blue. Some intricate spots on the coils are impossible to spray bomb, so I touched those areas up with plasti-dip from a brush. Overall pleased (looks like they came that way) and the rubberized coating has held fine so far.
I'm also going to wire down the damper and brush paint it with either Rustoleum satin black, or a two-tone of that with Rustoleum Ford tractor blue gloss, which is a pretty exact match to the VHT spray bomb blue (I don't want to spray bomb the damper) Anyway (the factory cast iron manifolds)...I had considered building wheel cribs to install headers, but then decided against it considering my uptight city emissions laws (and it's quite the involved task anyway) as many here I'm sure are already aware. It seems not worth it really for 'shorties' vs the factory manifolds. Long tubes require mid-pipe and that's just more cost (and effort) on top of everything I've already invested into the car. That would be pushing the budget way out for me.
So in a day or two here I'm going to wire the surface rust down best I can and apply a product called Calyx to the manifolds. It's a graphite based compound (comes in a little container) and you simply hand rub (or brush/rag apply) it into the cast iron and it bakes in to set. It leaves the manifolds looking like they just rolled off the assembly line. There's a similar product called 'Hot Stuff' from Eastwood if I remember correct. C2/C3 vette owners (mostly for whatever reason, and where I first learned about it) seem to swear by the stuff.
It's cheap (about 20 bucks) and the modest little container is enough to last for years and multiple applications. I guess (if you could call it the catch) applied and set, it will rub off to a small extent on your hands if you for whatever reason touch at the manifolds (it remains in that state always upon application no matter how baked in) But it wont simply wipe off altogether under such a scenario. It sets into the pores of the cast iron and is lasting. I'm curious if anybody has ever had any experience or is familiar with this product? What I'm really curious of is what effect water would have on the stuff (primarily if it produces runs or drips)
Maybe I should test that one out before applying it all over the manifolds. Long ramble here, but if anybody is curious, I will upload a shot of the bay tomorrow if any interest in that so you can all thumbs me up (or have a good laugh at my expense) Whatever works.
Last edited:
