Anyone read Popular Hot Rodding and see the Engine Masters article?

http://www.enginemasters.com

The guy that placed first used some coatings on the pistons. He's got to be doing something right. He made an amazing peak HP of 619 at 6500 RPM and torque of 529 at 5000 RPM with a NA SBC.

"Once the piston combination has been finish-machined, they will be coated by Calico Coatings with a thermal barrier on top (Calico's CT-2) and a friction reducing coating on the skirts (Calico's CT-3). "

http://www.popularhotrodding.com/tech/0208phr_sherman

I'm just curious if I should do something similar on my LS1 build-up (coatings). Has anyone tried this?

 

You can also check out feb issue of stock car racing magazine.Starting on page 34 there is an article on "techline" parts coating.I am using their products when I rebuild my LS1.Their website is www.techlinecoatings.com
you can coat almost anything on the car that causes friction.

 

Since I was in that contest..........

Yeah, coatings are great once you squeze the last hp out of a engine that you can get. The amazing thing was not the 619hp since it was a averge power test but the 530+ft lbs that these 6.0L (365cube) engines made. Joe's engine had more coating on it than you could imagine!

My engine should have had them on in, no doubt in my mind now. In my prelim runs I got 890-900 (The magic number they use for the average power) without them. I know a 910-920 was in it with them. I had some oiling problems as described in January's issue. Oh well that's what next year is for.

Now as for coatings on a LS1, if you are running boost or N2O they should be used to protect the piston tops with high levels of either. Now as you can see a NA engine will benefit from them too. The hotter the engine gets or the longer it runs the more coatings help, so yeah they are worth it. Only if that $800-$2000 you are going to spend on doing the right things is not usefull elsewhere. Which untill you spend $15K your not going to find elsewhere. That's my thoughts.

The thermal barrier coatings are where the HP is at. I could get into the how and why of that, but look at my post time and realize that I'm in NY!

BTW I have a 383 NA LS1 design that uses coatings and some other tricks that's about $15K and should do 535rwhp (at least) but I'm not going around claiming that untill someone wants to ante up and pay for it, lord knows my $15K goes to the Engine Masters Challenge, The first guy ran out of cash and income.

Bret Bauer

 

There's a company over here (UK) that use a process called Keroniting. It's similar to a ceramic coating but instead of being painted onto the piston crown, this treatment is impregnated/embedded. It was a Russian development now in the public domain after the cold war ended. I can't find the link but this is what I'm planning to do on my engine.

 

swain tech does all this too <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="gr_grin.gif" />

 

For racing, I've found that it is a waste of money. So, on a street car, I would say take your cash and do some enhancement some place else on your build up.