<VV> Dream Engine

John Kepler bigjohnohio@worldnet.att.net
Wed, 28 Jul 2004 22:08:24 -0400


> Sounds good. Where was it used on the Nissan?

In the combustion chamber area of the head, in the exhaust ports, on the
combustion chamber surfaces of the valves, and on the tops of the pistons.
We also coated the headers, inside and out.

To give you an example of just how well the coatings work, you could idle
the engine for 10-15 minutes, and then grab ahold of the header pipes
without injury (they were hot, but not uncomfortably so).  Remember back in
1983 when Bill Elliot's Ford T-Bird won just about everything in NASCAR?
His engine made roughly 100 more horsepower than everyone else....and he ran
500 Milers on one less pit-stop!  That was the first time the
ceramo-metallic coatings were used in a racing engine!

And how would the heat not
> get to the castings

If the heat isn't transmitted to the metal, then it stays in the cylinder
and does work!  Heat lost to the engine material itself not only requires
cooling to prevent the engine from melting, but it also lowers it's
thermodynamic efficiency.....it's like drilling a hole in the bottom of the
boat, and then running a pump to keep the boat from sinking!  The better
solution is to plug the hole in the boat!  The coatings, even though they
are only a few thousandths of an inch thick, are massively efficient thermal
insulators....heat simply isn't transmitted through them very well (they
were developed for the Space Shuttle, and are the last line of defense in
the event of a thermal tile failure....unfortunately, none was used under
the carbon-carbon panels on the wing leading edges).  Heat that never enters
the metal structure of the engine, doesn't have to be conducted into the air
by the cooling fins!

1st if it is cylinders we are talking about-on the cyl
> bore walls??

Nope, the cylinders are largely cooled by the engine oil, and have ample air
cooling area.  It's the head where the problems occur, and it's in the head
where the coatings have a significant impact.

John