Topic: Piston coatings

[swbeebe]

Ok, after reading the cryo hardening thread, I have a couple questions about piston coatings now.

With the cryogenic hardening, you would still benefit from getting the piston coated correct?

If your using the magnesium piston from briggs, I believe they have a ceramic coating on them or it would burn up?

Would the skirt on said piston benefit from the dry lube coating? Or is it using something already?

If the piston is coated already would you be able to harden it? Or would it ruin the coating due to different expand/contract rates of the 2 materials?

And lastly, has anyone tried to do this them selves?
I see you apply it with an air brush, and then heat treat it. I'm guessing an old ELECTRIC oven would be enough to do pistons in. I hear of people using them for small powder coating ovens. (Old one, because they will never smell right again) Also found this link on ebay for the supplies and some offer the services.
Here is the link if anyone is interested. http://motors.shop.ebay.com/i.html?rt=nc&LH_BIN=1&_nkw=piston+coating

[mowinmachine]

 I have been using the same Magnesium briggs piston for close to 3 years now. I removed it from my old engine and installed it in my new 14.5 OVH. It had been in a flathead up until last year. I'd the engine hard the entire time. On removal and inspection almost all of the coating on the skirt was worn off. Even so, the piston itself was in nearly perfect condition. So was the billet rod. My 2 cents is that as long as you change your oil every race or so you should be fine with a stock coating.

[2budzracing]

my racing machine shop guru dude says he ceramic coats piston tops and has a 'spray coat' thing he does to the body then bakes them..says it's better than stock teflon coated pistons ??????

[Burwell555]

Usually, pistons get coated when they are going to be in extremely high temps, such as a motor getting hit with a bunch of nitrous. It helps to control the sudden swelling of things as all the nitrous initially hits the cylinder. I know of guys amking 1100 horsepower in a big block chevrolet and do NOT have their pistons coated. They live to 9000 RPM and are all naturally aspirated. Just a thought to ponder.

[fordman21]

The cryogenic process has nothing to do with any coatings, you can still have parts coated after they are cryo'd. There is a coating for the top of the piston, chambers, valves and so on (anything in the combustion chamber) and a different coating for the sides of the pistons, you have to blast the parts with a very coarse abrasive and your oven will work to bake the parts.............if your wife doesn't find out.

[mowinmachine]

I will say that with whatever coating my Magnesium piston has made it easy to remove carbon when I rebuilt the engine. I was able to literally wipe the stuff off with a rag.

[chini]

  When I worked in the machine shop, we did some of the coatings you are discussing. We had good success with both types. You had to use special sand to prep the tops of the pistons for the ceramic coating. It all about reducing oil temps and hp loss.
                 Kevin