I just read an article about an aircraft engine that uses ceramic coated combustion chambers. Presumably because the ceramic rejects heat the aluminum heads won't rob as much power and at the same time the engine will run cooler.

Has anyone heard of this?

 

Yep, I have heard of it. Folks treat the combustion chambers, valves and piston tops for the reasons you have stated. I'm not sure where they get it done...

 

There's a place north of here that does it. They're FAA certified, and they do cars, too. They had an article in Muscle Car Enthusiast. www.cradin.com

BTW: They ceramic coated my intake & exhaust manifolds. BLING!

 

So when will we see ceramic IC engines? I am guessing the materials aren't quite there yet. Still pretty neat, no need for a cooling system, ect.

 

Yes it works, I did this on the engine in the71. I had the valves, chambers, exhaustports, rods, pistons, crankshaft, valvetrain, and bearings coated. I am running ross pistons 10.5 with gm alum heads on pumpgas with no problems. It contains the heat and breaks the static cling of the oil on the rotating assy. the cost was about 2 grand to do the entire motor. The motor also runs about 20 degrees cooler. I had the work done at polydyne in houston, carl is a nice guy call him he will help you. They do the coatings for several nascar teams as well as top fuel and prostock teams. I watched a video of a runniing bb chevy before and after this was done. It works. I can also state it was worth over 25 hp on the dyno. robert

 

I went to that link and marked it but didn't look around...

Ten + years ago you used to see ads for "Ceramakote" or something like that and a number of other products. These were do-it-yourself cure-in-your-stove or by torch type things for cylinder head combustion chambers, piston and even valve faces. Of course numbers of companies offer ceramic based coatings for headers and thermal barriers for intake runners, but these products I'm thinking of were for the real guts of an engine.

I've never heard from anyone who used them and often wondered how they'd work. My biggest observation is they may flake off easily under any knocking or other such high shock events, but I would think aside from affecting compression ratio a little I would think the pieces would harmlessly be expelled out the exhaust.

I'd love to hear some actual users comments and maybe try this out.

If it worked well, it could make iron heads, with their considerable heat retention abilities and durability (despite weight) usable at higher compression levels with pump gas.

I would think the best place would be in the cylinder head compartment itself and POSSIBLY the tops of the pistons - but would be concerned about valve tops.

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WOW! "Ask and ye SHALL receive!"

Neat deal guy! How many miles have you had on that engine in the '71 - had any tear down to see how it's holding?

 

The new 427" LS7 will use coatings on pistons. 25+ yrs ago they/racers started coating parts with teflon for reducing friction and temp barrier, now theres a coating for every part. Next step will be coatings to protect the coatings. But the hp return on investment limits how much this is used. Were talking sometimes only fractions of a hp for expensive parts that will out live our use for it - at least until the divorce court judge takes it away. Yes all those little hp increases add up but so do the credit card charges - and remember its now harder to file bankruptcy from impulse shopping.
I guess what i'm saying is that if it costs more than pocket change it ain't go'in in my mtr.
But like Robert u may have the need or even just a special application like cooling or octane/compression issues. What ever pushes ur piston - go for it. cardo0

 

I had this done for a project many years ago.This was a 350 motor that I was having built to run on propane.
The combustion chambers and the tops of the pistons were coated.Unfortunetly I ran out of money,and I wasn't able to finish it up.

 

That's really cool. Thanks guys!

 

Guys this works. It is expensive. I have about 2 hr. time on the 468 in the 71, all on a dyno. To get the motor up to temp I had to restrict the water flow to a trickle thats how well it cools. On 92 gas with 12* and 36 total all in at 2600, 95 * heat, 85 humid, it pulled 565 lb tq at 44 and 567 hp at 54, not bad for a mild mannered BB. It had over 400lbs of tq at 28 where the test started. cam is a hyd flat tapet with 230 540 on a 112. Something else while I'm here, roller rockers do not add hp. Roller tiped rockers do, but the roller fulcrum is not necessary. I tested a smallblock and this BB on the dyno and the roller tip's add 5hp to the BB, full roller added 4 over stock. I think most of this was do to a true rocker ratio than anything else. the roller tip will save the valve guide and reduce sideload to about 0. Also at the end of the run in 2 min you could lay your hand on the motor anywhere and it was warm but not hot. You could hold your hand there and not get burnt. I was impressed. robert

 

Here in australia Jet Hot coatings coats basically any internal engine part you want. They may do the same there.

I have seen several people in various 'fast fours and rotary' magazines that go ape and coat every last part to allow them to run as much boost as possible and keep the intake charge temp down as well (although I guess both of those things are related anyway).

As it has been said previously this sort of thing does cost $$$$ and with a big V8 motor that isn't using forced induction there is many other, MUCH CHEAPER, areas that can be upgraded yeilding much higher power gains than from ceramic coating everything. Obviously it will help but it more seems to be something done if the rest of the motor has been taken as far as it can be. That is why many newer model *** turbos use it because they leave the factory very highly developed already.

They may be producing a bit of power with those little turbo charged donks (do you guys know this term?, it is commonly used in australia, it means engine) but no matter how big they make those turbos there is no way they can get that low rpm torque that our babies have in bucket loads!

cosmicvette

 

i called them a was told unless i had a detonation problem, it would NOT do anything!