Ceramic coating your pistons is it worth it ??

This is a matter of opinion, but I think it is a good idea to ceramic coat the piston tops, valves and combustion chambers. I also like to teflon coat the piston skirts and rods.

Here is my reasoning - while the coating companies will tell you that you can make more hp when you control the heat and reduce friction (a good theory), I do not think that is what makes it worth doing. If you coat everything and something goes wrong, you are less likely to severly damage your motor. For example, if you go lean, etc.

I have seen a lot of the domestic guys that run really big N2O shots doing this regularly now. They claim that when they break their motors (always happens with that level of N2O eventually), that it is much less severe and much less expensive if everything has been coated.

My .02.

I think i'm gonna get it done. thanx for your thoughts...

I'm not arguing that high temp coatings are beneficial, but experience has shown me that they do not last.

We have opened a motor 5000km after a rebuild with coated pistons, and no coating remained. That's why I failed to coat my new pistons. The only thing I feel justifies the cost is that you have a little boundary when you do the initial tuning (i.e. before the coating burns off, etc.).

If you could prove to me that they will not come off after 10000km then i'd be on board. Until then, i'll keep my money in my pocket.

The reasoning behind the coating is excellent, the technology to do it is not (yet). Drag racers who frequently rebuild will obviously coat pistons, thus providing them will more efficient combustion, etc.

XES said:

I'm not arguing that high temp coatings are beneficial, but experience has shown me that they do not last.

We have opened a motor 5000km after a rebuild with coated pistons, and no coating remained.

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The last motor I opened up had 45K miles since we coated everything (Swain) and the coatings looked fine. Especially the friction coatings. They looked new.