Piston coatings?

[TheBac]

I was reading a build thread over on the Bullet, a car owner brought a topic concerning not wanting to overbore his engine bc he was leery of thinner cylinder walls.
Another racer/builder came on recommending honing the largest cylinder, then bring the others to that diameter. THEN, coat the pistons to whatever diameter you need to get your P-2-W clearance.
Coating recommended was by line2linecoatings. (I removed the www. and .com)
Would this be something that we could also use if needed?

 

[Fingers]

Within limits, yes it is an option. Swain in NY does it also. There appears to be at least two general types. An UHMW type coating and a hard ceramic like coating. I think one of the coatings from Swain is even machinable.

 

[N2BRK]

I've never done it, but I read a lot of guys in my old KTM group use Nikasil for that purpose. I don't know if that's appropriate here, but I figured I'd mention it in case it's helpful to look into.

 

[1FastBrick]

I've never done it, but I read a lot of guys in my old KTM group use Nikasil for that purpose. I don't know if that's appropriate here, but I figured I'd mention it in case it's helpful to look into.

Nikasil is typically done in the cylinder. Porsche has done this from the factory in some of their engines. The issue is finding first someone to do the coating process and 2 some one that can properly hone it. For a motorcycle cylinder liner it's no big deal. but shipping a D max block Plus the coating could be cost prohibitive. I looked into it briefly as a friend had a damaged cylinder on his wife's car. Was easier to source another case with no damage.

 

[Harshman]

The Line2Line does work. I have done a lot of gas pistons and big nitrous pistons with it. Works very well. I did my stock LB7 pistons. So far all is good.

 

[PureHybrid]

Line 2 Line is good, couple guys at work have used it in their race engines. Especially if you get to a situation where the cylinder is on the high limit bore, and everything is still in good shape so you're just wanting to de glaze & re ring

 

[2004LB7]

I wonder how nickel boron nitride would compare to Nikasil

 

[kidturbo]

Not a big fan of TBC, but other coating like graphite have been around for decades.
I'd give it a shot..

 

[2004LB7]

Not a big fan of TBC, but other coating like graphite have been around for decades.
I'd give it a shot..

I remember your trials with the twins. Didn't last long, from my recollection

 

[jlawles2]

Watch Steve Morris engines. He did the L2L coating on the pistons in his drag and drive race motor, the oil pump in the motor, and the turbo compressor housings.

Be prepared to change the oil several times as the coating wears in, be ready quickly as the coating will plug a filter up fast. I think he ended up doing 2 or 3 oil changes after a hub dyno runs on the D&D engine in his wagon.

Don't remember if it helped him with power, but did not hurt the numbers.

 

[TheBac]

Interesting info from all of you.

 

[NC-smokinlmm]

I’ve got a Drag and Drive 408 in my regular cab. That coating holds up pretty well, I think there are 40k miles on that combo now, all of them at 11lbs of boost with big injectors.

 

[kidturbo]

Watching a V10 Lambo tear down video, an has OEM coated cylinders. Looking pretty good at 20k miles, and considering the engine condition at tear down.

Skipped to the good parts.. Rewind to see what came out of those holes.

Source: https://youtu.be/qhH30G7980I?si=hjTt3VIqmCiuzGJI&t=4079