piston coatings
 

id like to hear some opinions&experiances with thermal coatings on the piston crowns.has anyone got pros or cons with this in a heavy hitting marine engine?

If you coat the head of the piston, you probably will need to do the chambers and valves as well.
You can just do the skirts though.

If its an all out race motor with fuel regulations and that sort of thing I think coatings have a place. Other than that I think it's a waist of money. Every used piston I've seen that was coated had the coating worn off in some way shape or form. At that point what good is it?

FWIW, some added info. I have been told that coating the exhaust valves alone is worth 5 hp but like above said the coatings will wear off at some point in time. David Vizard has a lot experience with coatings and he has recommended Calico for the past x amount years.

I coated the combustion chambers, valves and pistons (Thermal on dome, lubricating on skirts) on a 2.4L Turbo 4 when I built it. I have not had the motor back apart but it does make 450HP. For the extra cost, I would do it again, I also had the head, block, oil pan, trans case, etc... powder coated, and the turbo, manifolds, and plumbing ceramic coated, the motor still looks like new 30K miles later.

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...4/DSC02212.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...4/DSC02295.jpg

After 30K miles:
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...4/DSC02444.jpg

Why would you go to all the trouble for a lawn mower engine?

That lawn mower runs 10.70s on slicks, gets 31 MPG on the highway and has needed nothing but Oil changes since I put it together just over 31K miles ago

What was the MPH?

I just bought a book written by David Vizard. man knew his ****t thats for sure.

In my Blown Alky motors (Hemi) 3400 hp at 10,400rpm....DOUBLED the life of my pistons by Coating!

Been following David Vizard for over 35 years now even currently. have all his books. Sat in on his 3 day classes and have taken anything that he does as far as seminars at PRI for the past 10 years. Also talk to him in person thru the years and believe me a good person to learn a ton of info about any engine.

He told me once in person that he has tested over 18,000 cams thru out his life. I asked him did you say 18K of cams and his reply back was, No BS over 18,000 cams in his lifetime. Some people do not like him and like to put his methods down but really if you follow the guy - you will learn a lot.

he also wrote a great book on carbs - Holley mostly about a 1.5 or 2 years ago. The book is one of the best out there. Buy it and I bet you learn a lot.

Also in one of his classes we did a couple of dyno pulls with an oil additive to see how the #;s did. 7 hp and 3 ft lbs of torque improvement after using. Anyways the guy has a ton of info to pass on.

Mike,

We’ve been working with coatings and numerous applications for some time now. This is a summary of some of our findings.
On the engine side we’ve run DLC pins in conjunction with vacuum engines with great success in mitigating the effects of reduced to oiling to the pin. DLC is common throughout the valvetrain and multiple forms to enhance wear and friction reduction.

We’ve also been using thermal barrier coatings on the piston crown in conjunction with ceramic-based coatings applied to the combustion chambers and valve faces. One of the benefits of these thermal coatings is increased exhaust efficiency by keeping more heat within the exhaust gas, increasing the gas velocity on exit. There are other advantages of the ceramic base coatings including the reduction of heat soak into the cylinder head thereby reducing intake temperatures and thermal loss into the coolant. Friction coatings applied piston skirts are common throughout the industry.

We’ve also seen the benefits of hard anodizing the ring land to prevent micro welding under high temperature and loading.
The durability element of the working coating is largely centered on the correct preparation of the substrate material, surface finish, and component geometry. This ensures nearly 100% durability short of catastrophic events.

Bob

good info to know!

139 MPH lifting after the second timing light. Wasn't enough, still got sent home for no cage and no scattershield. I honestly thought it was a mid 11 sec pass. It just pulls and pulls on the back half. With more time to dial it in I'm sure it had a 10.50 at 142 or so in it but I'm not putting a cage in it it's my wife's daily driver during the Summer.

Bob is those from Swain - looks like their Gold Coat on the tops of the piston and their PC-9 or Poly Moly coatings on the Piston skirts. I know they are really close to you. They do a great job as well. I knew a couple of guys who raced motorcycles that has used them in the past and liked what they did.

thanks bob,that,s the kind of info i was looking for.back in my drag racing days i thermal coated the crowns and also coated the skirts with a .002 thick lube coating in blown alcohol engines but am curious if the benifit s would warrant doing it in 1000 to 1200 hp marine stuff.

i think i will be buying his books,i am always looking to learn.

I am having the LS pistons done now for our turbo drag radial car...

What kind of vehicle is it in? I hope your wife is a better driver than mine is! :D

Looking at the pics I would say its a Neon.

Pretty standard female roller skate.

Judging by the color of the engine I'm gonna say Kubota...

SRT-4 ACR

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...4/DSC02383.jpg

The Winter driver:
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps687fcfcb.jpg

Its got coated pistons and Powder Coated everything as well, Swain Tech on the headers 392 Cu In Scat crank CNC heads etc...
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...8/DSC01867.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...8/DSC01862.jpg

Put this on my to do list when its time to redo my motors.

ICDEDPPL LoKo coatings in Alsip does great work