What is the advantage of this?

 

The coating rejects heat. This keeps the coated surface cooler. By retianing heat in the combustion chamber, the engine becomes more efficient. On a blower car there's probably 2-3% more hp with coated pistons due to the increased thermal efficiency (more heat to expand the combustion gasses instead of heating up parts). But more importantly, there is less likelihood of detonation with resultant holes in the pistons. The exhaust valve is the hottest rotating part of the motor. Coating keeps it cool which helps longevity and also rejects some heat back into the combustion chamber.

I am using ceramic coated piston crowns and am considering coating the face of the exhaust valve and the combustion chamber during this winter's rebuild. I consider coated piston crown a "necessity" for a hi-po forced induction motor.

Rich Krause

 

Great.. that would be in my next rebuild or something... I want to achieve 550rwhp, so I know I dont need it, but, the better the system is built the easier it will be handling the horsepower

I then might ceramic coat the face of the valve if i do the heads on summer...

Is it a good idea to ceramic coat the whole piston and valves?

I was also thinking of ceramic coating the whole intake

 

Can someone explain the process for the home user. I plan on buying some for my valves and exhaust port. How hard is this process to do in a home oven??
Thanks

 

Look at Swain Techs web site for some information. Basically, a coating for each of the major area need somewhat different characteristics. In the case of pistons, the coating on the crown is there to reject heat while if the skirts are coated, the purpose is to reduce friction. http://www.swaintech.com/autolc.html

In terms of what to coat, clearly coating the piston crowns has the most benefit. After that, I'd consider the heads and valves.

Rich Krause

 

Thanks.
I'm going to do my exhaust ports too. I was just looking for a quick "summary" of the steps of actually doing the job.
eg. clean,(how) spray/dip(how), curing process(oven/??)
Todd

 

Where do you buy the paint for a DIY?

Can the piston crowns be coated while in the engine?

Can the ceramic coat chip off???

Thanks

 

"Look at Swain Techs web site for some information. Basically, a coating for each of the major area need somewhat different characteristics. In the case of pistons, the coating on the crown is there to reject heat while if the skirts are coated, the purpose is to reduce friction."

Rich,

How much of a diffrence would this make on a 396 with 5.850 rods were I here wear on the cylinder walls can be a factor over time? I'm putting one together now that will be used mostly as a daily driver and am wondering how much of a diffrence this would make long term. I dont have any intentions of pulling this engine out again any time soon. Thanks, msw

 

I think you will want to take the motor out to upgrade something or something will break on a hi-po motor before it wears out! If you are planning on long runs at very high engine speeds, then go for it. Otherwise, don't bother coating the skirts. OTOH, it's "only" $20/piston.

Rich Krause

 

Guys,

Coating is not something you can do at home. Swain or Polydyne need to do it.

Coating is the last place you want to look for power. It will help protect pistons from extreme heat and detonation.

Just doing valves will not help any, so don't bother with it.

If you are doing it for power reasons you need to do the chamber, the piston and the valve faces.

Things like coating the exhaust port help alot at keeping the heat out of the rest of the engine.

This stuff works, but it is the last step to get the most out of the engine.

Swain has other coatings too. Oil sheading coating, and some skirt coatings. The skirt coatings are not a long term thing. They will help but they are not going to be there forever.

Basically they should be used on competiton engines. On a daily driver they are good for the rotating assembly,chamber and pistons, that is what will help the most.

Rich on the other hand can get a ton of benefit from them. The more you push the limits with power the more these coatings will help. A all out coating on a engine is $2000+ while for about $900 you can get the most bang for the buck and it works for a daily driver the best.

I am in the process of using coatings on a daily driver/strip car and for a competition engine. Everything gets covered on the competition engine, while just the chambers, piston tops and valves will get the thermal coating along with the oil coating on the daily driver.

I could go on and on about this stuff. Basically most guys don't need it unless everything else is optimized, because there is more power in heads, intakes, cams than in coatings so you might as well focus on that first.

Bret

 

The cooler it runs the better the daily driver

That is my point... I dont care for 20 horses when I get 520rwhp, The point to all is, keep heat out of the engine, it will make it last a lot longer. I think.

 

For a daily driver the heat factor is not about life but about the power it makes when it is hot. The heat will not rob power from you with the coatings (well it will just alot less) that is the big advantage of coatings on a street car. No heat soak! it's like lining up at the drag strip and not worring about it! just let that baby idle! No ice bags etc.....

The engine life part with things like Swain Techs Gold Coat is to prevent extreme conditions like High Boost, Nitro Methane or lots of N2O from eating the piston apart.

Bret

 

Like has been said before, there are several types of coatings available with their respective uses. The faces of the pistons/valves/combustion chambers would use a thermal barrier coating. If you were to coat the piston skirts/valve stems you'd use a dry film lubricant coating. For coating the intake manifold, you would want to coat the bottom part with a thermal barrier coating and the top with a thermal dispersant coating. It would be well advised to read up on these coatings like stated previously. I would wager that the higher HP engine you have, the more that would be gained by using these coatings throughout the engine, since more power would be lost due to heat/friction without the coatings.