Zirconium carbide was prepared from the mixture of metal zirconium and carbon powders in argon atmosphere by Self-propagating High-temperature Synthesis (SHS) in order to obtain the best carbon source and dilution contents. The most exellent result was obtained in the case that active carbon was added as a starting material, 20~30 wt% dilution content. From thermal profile analysis an apparent activation energy of 118 KJ/mol was calculated. The maximum heating rate achieved during 15 wt% ZrC reaction by product dilution method was approximately 1.54$ imes$105 K/s. Coupling this value with the measured wave velocity of 1.026cm/s yielded a maximum thermal gradient fo $1.5 imes$105 K/cm. Using the definition of t* and the measured wave velocity, the effective thermal diffusivity, $alpha$, was calculated to be 0.62$ imes$102 $ extrm{cm}^2$/s.