I haven't seen any mention of engine coatings on ecomodder. I read articles that said that a Chevrolet V8 racing engine can gain 40 HP by coating pistons and combustion chambers with a thermal barrier coating. That is roughly a 6.6% improvement in power. I had a phone conversation with somebody who worked at Swain Tech. He told me that an engine with coated pistons and combustion chambers should have about 5% better fuel economy than a normal engine. Here is some information from Swain Tech about their coatings.
Coatings Get Technical
This is not an inexpensive modification. Several years ago it cost $40 to coat each piston. I think the price has gone down since then. Techline Coatings has a product called CBC1 POWERKOTE (Cermet Coating Thermal barrier) that can be applied at home. The coated parts need to be cooked in an oven at 300 degrees for an hour. It costs $29.95 for a 3 oz. bottle. I guess that is enough for one engine.
I found a list of the engine coating companies here:
ENGINE COATINGS - A REFERENCE THREAD - Speed Talk
This is the list of companies from that forum:
HPC ----
http://www.hpcoatings.com/
Jet hot -----
JETHOT
Swain Tech -----
Swain Tech
Tech line Coatings ----
Techline Coatings
A heat barrier coating should also improve the reliability of engines. The coated parts should be more resistant to overheating and cracking.