you havent touched the coating with your bare hands have you?
I hope they told you to use a cotton/wooly glove to handle it, and only once its on the car and been run for a while that you can touch it with your hands.

I got some stuff coated in perth and was very pleased with work. Seems to keep alot of heat down in engine bay as well.

I would suggest getting your b pipe done as well. Dump is pointless without b pipe being coated as well. What ive been told anyways.

Well, I haven't handled it with my hands, using instead the bubble wrap it was wrapped in to move it around. But no, there was no instructions or warning not to handle the parts by hand.

HPC Victoria has replied to my email and offered to touch up the flaking parts if I send it back to them. Seeing as shipping is only $15 each way (and hopefully they'll pay for the return shipping?) I guess I might as well send it back to them.

Biggest worry at the moment is if those portions where the coating has flaked off end up seeing more heat than the rest of the part, causing the welds in those portions to fail.

I read that thermal wrapping holds more heat in than thermal coating, but can introduce other problems of their own (though nothing conclusive...). But even if the thermal coating reduces my bonnet temps by just 10% - 15%, that's better than nothing. I'll take whatever I can get.

Final Chapter of a 2.5 year saga:

The story of a little Gen 3 with a blown engine sitting in Osaka, Japan is reaching its final chapter.

Since the last update above regarding the thermal coating and also regarding the blocked fuel filter, I have gotten the fuel filter changed and the dump pipe has come back perfect. No flaking whatsoever. I brought the car to the tuners last Saturday and got a message yesterday saying it was ready. The good news was that the previous fuel blockage was indeed caused by a blocked fuel filter. Fuel flow is now smooth and strong, with no problems whatsoever. The bad news is that there is apparently "no more power in it". The amount of power being produced now is the same as when the car had a blocked fuel filter (i.e. 185 kW). I'll be picking up the car tomorrow so I'll know for sure the exact power it is producing now.

All in all, it's a rather disappointing result for me considering how long (and how much) it has taken/cost me to get to where I am with the car today. But if this is it, then this is it. I was just expecting -easily- more than 185 kW.

In summary, if your car has the following mods, expect 185 kW at 18psi:

Exhaust: Kakimoto 3" 2000 N1+ (almost a straight pipe), and SARD Downpipe
Fuel: Upgraded SARD fuel pump, HKS top feed fuel rail, HKS 680cc injectors
Cams: HKS 264/264
Turbo: Blitz K1-380V
Intercooler: ARC
Air Filter: ARC Box
Internals: Mahle pistons

thats around 40 to 50 rwkw better than stock is it not? whats the duty cycle on the injectors at that power?

I must say that's a pretty disappointing power figure considering I'm on 170rwkw untuned with a CT20B and full decat exhaust on a stock gen2 motor done 130'000kms. Might pay to get a decent computer running it all?

stick with it. hopefully its something simple. where are you located? surely someone on here can put you on to a decent mechanic

Send me the dynosheet Brendan. Come to the next meet & I'll have a good look at the car. I'm sure it's got more in it, I suspect cam timing.

Finally managed to get a hold of the tuner for a chat. Main problem is that the maximum boost the turbo could generate was 14.7 psi. He cranked the boost controller setting up as high as it could go and still it could not boost past 14.7 psi.

14.7 psi boost, plus turbo working at max. capacity, seems to be the clear culprit for a 20 - 30 kw loss of power. No idea what the problem is yet. Maybe BOV, maybe leaking hose?