See last post for latest info

After noticing a small crack between the valve seats in every combustion chamber I decided to see what could be done to help the poor old air cooled heads deal with the prolonged heat of circuit racing.

Hi-Octane Racing in Rydalmere suggested ceramic coating the combustion chambers, exhaust port and valve faces. I also had the piston top ceramic coated and a lube film applied to the piston skirt.

The ceramic coating insulates the head and the piston from the hot gases created by combustion. This has a few benefits.

Firstly, it keeps the head cooler because more heat goes out with the gases through the exhaust. Hopefully this will reduce if not stop the cracking. Heads are a substantial investment.

Secondly, keeping the heat in the combustion chamber helps the gas expand which is what pushes the piston down creating power and torque.

Thirdly, hot gas moves faster. So it'll flow out of the ceramic exhaust port and through the ceramic headers faster creating more scavanging.

Here are some pics.

ITs a great idea, I got my engine done and it keeps the temps low even with a 11.5: CR. I also got the outside of the barrels done with a heat dissapating coating.

Me too. I found my engine could definately support higher cr with the coatings, and love the improved longevity of all parts, especially with the friction coatings (way better than the Mahle stuff), in the tranny too,cooler running, quicker shifts, ......more power.

I also used the external heat disipater on the barrels, worls really well, and stops them going rusty too.

Thanks for your comments guys. I'm glad I'm not pioneering the ceramic coating. Heaps of people have mentioned whit a great idea it is.

Hey Matt, the outside of my cylinders has a special coating that helps reduce the weight of the non-rotating mass as time goes by. Can you guess what it's called? You can get it just about anywhere.

I found a receipt over the weekend. My pistons and cylinders were purchased new in 1994. I've got no idea how many kilometers they've done because I bought the engine secondhand.

I've spoken to a few people this week about the random engine parts I've purchased which somehow go together. They've all been very helpful.

Mike K put me onto some shorter valve springs with thicker wire which look like they'll do the job without me having to get the spring seats sunk deeper into the heads, or the inlet port as the case may have been.

Thanks to the Jak Rizzo cheer squad I ended up with an Eagle 2288 cam which is a stunt double for the Engle K8.

I've borrowed some rocker 1.4 assemblies and some advice from Keith "soon to be known as captain nitrous" Hausler.

John Ladamatos has been my second set of eyes. He checked out all the bearings and case halves for signs of wear. I think his response was that I've "Almost run it in this time." C'mon John. Read any VW engine manual and it says when you need to replace a pushrod tube you also need to change the cam, the lifters, the pushrods, valve springs and rocker assembly. Oh, and ceramic coat everything that can be ceramic coated.

Still looking good for Wakefield.

CYA CT

Sounds like you got it all covered CT, even the cylinders, hopefully the internals aren't covered with the same 'special' coatings, we have plenty of that stuff up here. Some new oxidation process I believe.

Craig.

actually 10.5:1, hit the wrong botton. 98 octance. Fresh tank from a major station before any event or fang.

Dumb question - but di you ceramic coat the valve seat?


Newt

Hi Newt,

The seats are not ceramic coated.

Here are some shots of my valve springs.

The holden springs I'm planning to use are shorter, left than the springs that came with the DRD heads are in the middle. On the right I think it's an old Bugpak spring.




Here are the spirngs compressed to about 27mm. The Holden will wear it a lot easier.




The shorter outer Holden springs are made from wire about 4.25mm think whereas the other springs are 4mm.

Hopefully I'll get the seat pressure and the pressure at 13.5mm lift measured in the next few days.

The Holden springs are slightly larger in diameter but they still fit in the head and the inner spring as the same ID so it's working out well. Thumbs up to Mike Kristen for the recommendation.

The cam timing has worked out with zero degree washers.

CT

another dumb question...........what happens if the ceramic coating comes off, will it just blow out the exhaust or would it damage the motor?

Mission impossible mostly complete.

What a rush it was to get the engine build for the VW Nationals supersprint.

On Thursday night, 2 days before racing, I had one head bolted on and I was about to bolt the other head on for the final time. I blew some dust out of the combustion chambers and noticed the valves were mixed up. The number 1 inlet was in the number 4 chamber. So I had to dismantle the heads again. By midnight I had a long block bolted to the work bench.

I decided to run the engine in with the 1.1 rockers and pushrods I used with the engle 130. If all went well I'd swap to the 1.4s can chromoly pushrods at Wakefield park on Saturday. As it turns out I was sick of working on the car and decided to leave the 1.4s for another day.

I started work on the engine at 7am. 24 hours before scrutineering in Goulburn.

After copping crap from Mat Berry about my daggy engine bay I got Hi Octane to hit the engine tin with some candy apple pearl paint when they did the ceramic coating to the heads and exhaust. The exhaust is a nice thick wall 1 5/8 berg pheonix item and I want to preserve it. The old ceramic coating was about 4 years old so Hi Ocatne redid it and it looks and seals as good as new.

Jak came over about lunch time and I had my uncle lending a hand too. We didn't get the engine in the car until about 5pm. Then the bloody thing wouldn't start. I could not for the life of me find a signal from the pertronix or the MSD on which to statically time the engine. Fortunately I marked the position with nail polish (Jak's) before I pulled the engine apart so at least the timing was close.

The fix was to go downstairs and drink a beer. When we tried the engine again it came to life first time. Perhaps it flooded while cranking up the oil pressure.

We started the engine and drove to Kmart about 20 minutes away to buy a timing light. They didn't have one.

The engine was runing quite well so we simply packed the car and drove to Goulburn in the rain. We got there at midnight.

well done CT........how did it feel for power this time?

Quote:

Originally posted by fullnoise Mission impossible mostly complete. What a rush it was to get the engine build for the VW Nationals supersprint. On Thursday night, 2 days before racing, I had one head bolted on and I was about to bolt the other head on for the final time. I blew some dust out of the combustion chambers and noticed the valves were mixed up. The number 1 inlet was in the number 4 chamber. So I had to dismantle the heads again. By midnight I had a long block bolted to the work bench. I decided to run the engine in with the 1.1 rockers and pushrods I used with the engle 130. If all went well I'd swap to the 1.4s can chromoly pushrods at Wakefield park on Saturday. As it turns out I was sick of working on the car and decided to leave the 1.4s for another day. I started work on the engine at 7am. 24 hours before scrutineering in Goulburn. After copping crap from Mat Berry about my daggy engine bay I got Hi Octane to hit the engine tin with some candy apple pearl paint when they did the ceramic coating to the heads and exhaust. The exhaust is a nice thick wall 1 5/8 berg pheonix item and I want to preserve it. The old ceramic coating was about 4 years old so Hi Ocatne redid it and it looks and seals as good as new. Jak came over about lunch time and I had my uncle lending a hand too. We didn't get the engine in the car until about 5pm. Then the bloody thing wouldn't start. I could not for the life of me find a signal from the pertronix or the MSD on which to statically time the engine. Fortunately I marked the position with nail polish (Jak's) before I pulled the engine apart so at least the timing was close. The fix was to go downstairs and drink a beer. When we tried the engine again it came to life first time. Perhaps it flooded while cranking up the oil pressure. We started the engine and drove to Kmart about 20 minutes away to buy a timing light. They didn't have one. The engine was runing quite well so we simply packed the car and drove to Goulburn in the rain. We got there at midnight.

Jeez CT, shame to get all that candy oil stained.....on a serious note.....well done for getting the new combo to Wakefield, keen to hear how the 1.4's liven things up.

Having never used ratio rockers or chomoly pushrods before I carefully set them up with advice from John Latomatos and Keith "Larry" Hausler. Thanks guys.

I've swapped the Engle W130 with 1.1s for a CB Performance Eagle K8 equivalent with 1.4s. That means more lift and less duration. Hopefully I'll have the same power but more mid range and drivability.

I set them up when the engine on the bench but ran in the new cam and lifters using alloy pushrods and the 1.1 rockers. The run in was the VW nationals supersprint where I noticed the engine wouldn't pull above 6 grand around the track in third. As a result I was about 1.6 seconds off my best even with the new ADVAN A050 rubber. I think the engine was down about 30HP. So I hoped like hell that the 1.4s liven things up a bit.

I took the car gently around the block the other night with the 1.4s and chomoly pushrods. I was really disappointed because the car seems to have lost its agro. It idles like a stocker and runs super smoothly. It was late at night and cold so I didn't rev the car past 5000 on the 2 minute run.

So today I decided to drive the car to work an hour away.

Having less duration has its advantages on the street. The car pulls up hills in 4th that would've been 3rd with the old cam. The 2500 rpm hesitation has gone. The car seems to rev more cleanly to 4000 rpm. BORING.

After about 45 minutes of driving I got some clear air. Well enough clear road to hit the 7000rpm MSD limiter in first and second gear af few times. I really needed to check it out in a higher gear. I got it to 6300 in 3rd in (In the Northern Territory of course) and backed off. Well it revs quickly and cleanly. It goes hard. As hard as before? Well it's hard to tell. I think the old cam gave the impression it went harder because it was so rich in the lower rev range. It was a bit dull around the 2500 where there's fuel standoff and then it would clear and hit the sweet spot at about 4200 and then rev well to 7000.

The K8 seems linear in the way it pulls from idle.

But I'm happy with the performance. It sounds crisper. It buzzes and puts a smile on my dial.

The SAS dyno is 3 doors up and I've had the car checked there after each engine build. I wouldn't be surprised if it made less than the W130's 99.9 HP but I think it will make more horsepower up to 6000 rpm.

The Warwick drags will be another test. So will Eastern Creek. This cam has the potential to pull out of the low RPM turn 2 a lot quicker which will help the turn 3 exit speed and the speed down the hill into 4. It should also pull harder out of corporate hill so the sub 2.00 lap time dream could be a reality.

Check out the engine tin coating by Hi Octane.

The engine temps have been icy like the weather. Is that because of the ceramic coating? Time will tell.

God I waffle! CT

Next a new flange back exhaust from Westi and possibly some IDAs. The exhaust will help but I doubt the IDAs will with my baby heads.

CT

Hi CT

Your motor looks beautiful now. One thing spoils it, the taped up heater tube holes, you can either find a welsh plug the correct size to fit inside get some pressure pack lids and clamp them on.

Steve

Twin plugs would make it run pretty good!

Twin plugs would make absolutely no difference at all.

CT runs MSD ignition.

Nice to hear your pleased with your latest engine combo mate.

Cheers Col

cough cough.......well twin plugs would, but lets not get into that debate on CT's build.

good story CT, thanx for the update, been wondering

I had a great time driving the car home on Friday night.

It's so easy to drive with the K8. You don't have to compensate for soggy spots, you can take off from the lights at idle and it pulls hard to 7000 in third easily.

With the sedate safe suspension setup and a user-friendly engine the car is idiot proof. The perfect car for me really.

I am going to do a bit of fiddling. I want to pop off the rocker covers with the engine at 80 degree oil temp to check the tappet clearence. I'm going to try a few different jets and vary the timing a little.

I'd love to have a good play with a twin plug setup to see what jets and timing it could get away with. Greg Ward has explained the principles to me and enough manufacturers have done it.

All in all it seems like another small step forward.

CYA CT

Sounds great CT. Another k8 lover ;-)

cant beat a wide power delivery hey....would you say it suits the gear ratios?...being the rpm drops work well

what will be interesting is what it will do on the track now...