Ceramic coating pistons
Discussion
I have to say I'm with Lotus guy on this one, I have been tuning Lotus engines for about 15 years and have noticed the Esprit turbo's appetite for pistons (both cast and forged). Lotus changed the pistons from cast to forged in 86, however in 89 they added a coating to the crown. The pistons are Forged Mahle: who supply about 50% of the F1 grid, I believe they are also the worlds oldest piston manufacturer and know a thing or two about what they do. So a leading car manufacturer and piston company both use piston coatings. However that's not to say all coatings are equal; some appear to be more hype than substance to me. I have just had some piston crowns treated with a Keronite process: this is not a coating as such but a process that changes the surface of the piston crown to a ceramic type material; as such it's not ever likely to flake off like a coating could. This process is originally Russian and has leaked out as a consquence of the "thaw" in the cold war. The treated surface achieves a hardness close to tool steel and as such is very resistant to detonation. It also reduces piston temps by about 60 deg C. It's currently finding favour in World Rally car engines.
Most turbo engines have oil jets cooling the piston crowns so piston cooling is obviously an issue, as such a heat barrier (even marginal) can't hurt. The temperatures in a combustion chamber are above the point where aluminium would normally melt, the coolant in the head and block prevent this, however the piston cooling is much more marginal because the water jacket cannot directly help: hence the need for oil jets to cool the crown. I think thermal coatings are still in their infancy but the benefits are claer to see: it's just case of sifting through the advertising hype and finding the truely competant suppliers - like most engine tuning really!
Most turbo engines have oil jets cooling the piston crowns so piston cooling is obviously an issue, as such a heat barrier (even marginal) can't hurt. The temperatures in a combustion chamber are above the point where aluminium would normally melt, the coolant in the head and block prevent this, however the piston cooling is much more marginal because the water jacket cannot directly help: hence the need for oil jets to cool the crown. I think thermal coatings are still in their infancy but the benefits are claer to see: it's just case of sifting through the advertising hype and finding the truely competant suppliers - like most engine tuning really!
Keronite coatings are available from CTG (Crompton Technology Group) not to far away from you in Banbury.
Their website is www.ctgltd.co.uk/
Their website is www.ctgltd.co.uk/
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