Every engine I build gets cryoed components.. At least all the valvetrain components get the service.
I have been using coated bearings, pistons and chambers since 2000.. Here are some pics of the various coatings that I have worked with Calico coatings to optimize for the ACVW engine. We have developed over a dozen profiles for these coatings to be used effectively.
These parts have see cryo/REM
Here's some lifters that were treated to different process, then ran for 10K miles and inspected. This included DLC coating, cryo and Ion Nitriding.
These rod bearings were treated to 4 different coating processes and then all ran for 14 Road races seeing 9,000 RPM for 45 minutes at a time. We then inspected them to see what differences existed with the different coating processes.
These 105.07mm pistons were used to test a proprietary ring land coating developed to eliminate ring land/ring microwelding that we experienced with coated chambers and piston tops. This occurred when lands were not coated due to the heat the top ring saw that was reflected from the chambers and piston crown. After this coating was fine tuned the issues were totally solved.
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These heads have a thermal barrier coating on the chambers and a thermal dispersant coating on the exterior of the heads. The thermal barrier coatings have the capability of keeping more heat energy in the chamber, increasing output and reducing head temperatures. Thermal dispersant coatings help to reduce heat soak as they actually sink heat out of the components to meet with the cooling air charge for dissipation. It took us a couple of years to fine tune both of these, but now I have engines running in Land Speed racing that don't even need a cooling system to run for as much as 3 miles at WOT putting out 1.9 HP/ cubic inch. In some tests I did with our shop casting oven the thermal dispersant coating assisted with a cylinder head that was coated cooling to room temp 45% faster than the non coated head that was taken to the same temp (400F) at the same time.
These parts have been DLC coated.
DLC coating has been our most effective coating procedure yet for many applications that see metal/metal wear with very little hydro-dynamic oiling, like rocker shafts, dizzy drive pinions and pushrod tips... We have found significant power in our race engines using these procedures and have absolutely killed wear in most areas. With these coatings we are able to run Ti wrist pins in steel rods with no bushing at all and seriously reduce valve/ guide clearances to as little as .0002 without issue. The DLC coated components won't score or gall and are actually more slippery dry than non DLC components that are lubricated! The down side to DLC is cost, the pictured parts cost 1400.00 to do at today's prices, it was about 1100.00 to do when we were doing the initial development, when these pictures were taken in 2004.
Coatings can work very well, but the learning curve when using them correctly can be expensive. People that build coated engines with the same clearances and thought that was used with non coated components are not taking advantage of the technology much at all.
So yes, advantages are there but the cost of admission isn't cheap and you'll have to pay close attention to tuning and other settings as they will change with coated components. Our processes are highly refined now and have been for about 3 years, but the beginning really sucked!
