[Steve C.]

Update.
I brought up the subject in another forum recently and this prompted me to make a phone call to Polymer Dynamics in Houston (713-694-3296). According to the president Carl Benton their Polydyne Performance Coatings are used on automotive parts but he stated the mainstay of their business is in the field of turbine engines. Possibly this is in conjunction with a area unrelated to TinInjun. We discussed their new synthetic polymer ceramic coating for use on piston tops as commonly used for a protective coating related to nitrous use and also for performance gains. Relating to performance gains, he stated they are seeing about a 10 hp average increase and on up towards 17-18 hp on the "pro stock" type engines. They find less timing is required and it allows more fuel to be burned (or was it more efficient burn?). They have two different coatings, the newer and better of the two is called HS Gold and the cost is $35 per piston (the other is $29). Both are applied as a very thin lightweight coating, only about 1 1/2 thousands thick on the dome itself (can't remember what he said the skirt thickness was). As a side note, during my conversation I mentioned the subject of using ceramic coatings to aid in the ability to run additional compression as Keven brought up for the subject of this post, he had no specific knowledge concerning the basis for that claim. However as I mentioned there are others out there in the field, Swain Tech Coatings being one of the larger ones.
David Vizard claims that numerous dyno tests of all-out racing engines equipped with coated pistons have shown that power increases of between 4 percent to 8 percent are possible. He states that coatings can be successfully used on any engine, street or all-out race. However, he made sure to point out that you must decide if such coatings are cost-effective for the application.

[This message has been edited by Steve Coombes (edited 08-22-2000).]