piston coatings?????

[Wheelie-Gene]

Anyone hear anything good/bad about having the piston coated in a 500?

I'm building a turbo engine for my Camaro.....the pistons have a dry film (lubricating) coating on the skirts and a heat barrier coating on the domes. The combustion chambers/valve faces will be coated also, that way less heat will be absorbed into the cooling system.

Any benefits to doing that on a 2 stroke?????

[Exnav]

Can't say on a 500.

Mahle has Grafal on the skirts and phosphate on the rest of the body of the piston and we have been using this setup in Formula 1 for years.

[MICK]

Gene I also like doing this. But seriously...all the coated pistons I've used in my bikes, I couldn't tell you if any of them did a damn bit of good. It's the fact that I've never had a piston failure why I continue to coat pistons. I know others have never had failures without them so they may not see my logic. Maybe it's because I'm on my first Wiseco ever and it still runs quiet as a mouse after this many hours? Not the slapity-bing-bang-boom I expected. Trikcoat, Swain Tech and Max Power have done my pistons in the past. I have never had a piston related failure. Snowmobiles, Sprint Boats or bikes.

[Wheelie-Gene]

Yep....F1 is the place where new ideas are born. Where else can an engine spin 19K rpm, last for 2 race weekends and have springless valve trains.
There and the goo-roos at Cadillac and Corvette produced many ground-breaking ideas as well (too bad Ford tweeks GM's version and takes the credit). Enough about car stuff...

I just figured if the piston, exhaust port and combustion chamber is coated, the engine will be cooler internally and more heat will be expelled out the exhaust.
Maybe I'm just looking at things under a microscope. I got the bike registered for the road when I had the title transferred. It'll be spending its life cruising down the highway and flying down back roads.
I hate building something twice...just want it to be reliable and durable.

Like Mick said, I too haven't had any piston related failures.
Coatings have been proven to work, just wondered if anyone here has had it done.

[MICK]

Well yes I think using coated parts is like dissecting your engine with a microscope. How would you know if your engine was running 8-10 degrees cooler? I know I can't tell a difference.
What I can measure is a parts service life. And I can expect generally twice the life out of a coated piston.
I bought my bike in DEC02, in FEB06 I replaced the tired top end. And to clarify, in those three years I was only in the United States for 11 months intermittent. The top end might have had 20 hours? Now I've got maybe 40 hours on my coated piston thus far and I have no reason to believe I won't get another 40 out of it.

[100hp honda]

if were strictly speaking cr500, coating the bore is better idea than coating the piston IMO

[AlisoBob]

Brit says....

Coating waste money that could do towards Beer.....

In the dirtbike world, I tend to agree with him...

Quality machine work + lots of oil = Long life.

[nmdesertrider]

That formula 1 engine is doing 20 times more work...the longevity of the 500 is due to running at only small percentage of its potential.

[MICK]

...towards beer

Well that's right because you can't buy much else for the price of a coated piston. Shit you could probably drink for 2-3 days what it costs to coat one.

[Wheelie-Gene]

I decided not to have it done.
The extra down-time and expense -vs- results is a no brainer. I need to get my cylinder prepped and back together ASAP. Have some extra $$$ for the beer fund is always a good idea.
I located a coater North of San Antonio that can do it fairly cheap. I just hate to waste another week waiting on someone else.
It's wiser to put the cash where it matters most...I called Glen at GSS to get his thoughts on the benefits of his trail porting, along w/a bore and hone.
W/correct maintainance and the proper lubricants, you shouldn't need addatives or coatings. After all, it's not a rocket engine (well, almost).

Thanks for all the feedback everyone......

[nmdesertrider]

I've always been partial to Vertex pistons, and they come coated with moly to aid break-in

[MICK]

Yeah downtime really takes the wind out of your sails. I took 3 months and some change if I remember right to collect all my parts. I must have had half a dozen engine components scattered across the country. It was a damn headache, but I've been very happy with it. I figured what the hell, it's not like I have to do this every year. Collectively I wait much longer than that for simple parts like, tires, grips, oils, cables and levers. That's the cost of dirt biking...time and money.