Quote:
Originally Posted by Isaac Zackary
Sadly no. This car doesn't have any sort of temperature gauge. Well, now that I'm rebuilding the engine I'll install an oil temperature and a cylinder head temperature gauges. So I won't be able to compare. All I'll have to go by is that the normal operating temperature should be between 300° F and 350° F CHT. So if it's lower that would be a sign the thermal barrier ceramic coating is working.
As far as the thin film lubricating coating goes, I'm skeptical that it really helps too. But I though, why not.  |
Aww, that's too bad. How close to the combustion chamber is the temperature sensor?
I've always wanted to do a thermal barrier coat on the valves and head, but I'm still waiting on "the one" car to go all out on with modifications and upgrades. Everyone swears the coatings work, but it would be good to see some direct evidence. The only numbers I can find is some website that put an engine on a dyno after coatings and the engine appeared to gain a few horsepower, but more direct evidence would be better.
One reason it would be super interesting to see how much the temperature drops is that direct injection gains most of its power/anti-knock ability from the fact that fuel can enter the cylinder at a colder temperature since it's not being cooked by the valve. If a ceramic barrier can drop the intake valve temperature and in cylinder temperature, you might be able to bump the compression ratio up like with a DI engine. I don't know if it's possible but if the intake tract can be coated too then it would help even more.
As far as the lubricant goes, the one interesting place where that could be useful is the piston skirt. Bearings are almost always under hydrodynamic lubrication but the piston skirts are not, and OEMs use a myriad of coatings on the skirts. Which coating did you get? Oh yea, if it's possible you might want to ask to get the piston wrist pins coated, apparently those experience some wear as well.