My engine builder suggested to me that i may want to consider ceramic coating my rotors to help keep temps down on my soon to be new motor.
I did a search but couldnt find anything on the topic, are any of you guys doing this? Is this a good idea for any rotary or maybe just high horsepower/track car applications?

 

it's been done. off the top of my head, Turblown is the only place i can think to refer you to with your questions on specifics. Elliot is cool and knowledgable. i'm sure it will definitely help with thermal efficiency, but i'd also suspect that there are many other things you may wnat to have done to the motor before looking to ceramic coating. perhaps you should discuss the details of your build to see if all other bases are covered, if not here, at least to someone that's experienced.

 

^^hey thx for the response,
what other things are u revering too, before ceramic coating?

 

You didn't look very hard did you?



https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...ceramic+rotors

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...ceramic+rotors

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...ceramic+rotors

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...ceramic+rotors

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...ceramic+rotors

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...ceramic+rotors

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...ceramic+rotors

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...ceramic+rotors

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...ceramic+rotors

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...ceramic+rotors

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...ceramic+rotors

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...ceramic+rotors


~Mike.............

 

****, sorry my bad, thanks for the links.

anybody have any new opinions on this they would like to express?

 

sounds like a cool idea

 

We opened up an engine that had cermaic coated rotors and it had flaked off everywhere inside. It was a mess. Not sure who did the coating, but it was not good.

 

I know Busted7 runs cermet coated rotors, their current condition I don't know because I believe they're still in the engine lol

 

I have a pair of JHB thermal coated S5 N/A rotors I'm going to be using in my PP engine....why not? Its only money lol.

 

Why were you opening the engine up?


Also, going through all of the links posted above... Is there any empirical data as far as rotor face coating is concerned? All i'm seeing is reduced oil cooling, the extra heat will fry your turbos, etc. Certainly in the years that have elapsed since those first posts there's some sort of evidence as to the usefulness of coating rotor faces.

 

Busted7's rotors would have been coated by the same people who would be doing mine. I had my rotors coated on a 3mm motor that i had a couple years ago, i had that motor opened and the coating on the rotors was still intact (mind u there was only a few thousand miles on it). Still dont know if there was any benifit or drawback to having them done. all i know is it cost me money.

 

Im not sure if this is possible, but why not try coating the the rotor housing with Nikasil. I dont think the rotor housings come with this coating from the factory, but if im wrong flame away.
This coating is suppose to reduce friction and dissipate heat more efficiently.
Here's a copy and paste from wikipedia.org

"Nikasil is a trademarked electrodeposited oleophilic nickel matrix Silicon Carbide coating for engine components, mainly piston engine cylinder liners. It was introduced by Mahle in 1967, initially developed to allow rotary engine apex seals (NSU Ro80 and C111) to work directly against the aluminum housing. This coating allowed aluminium cylinders and pistons to work directly against each other with low wear and friction. Unlike other methods, including cast iron cylinder liners, Nikasil allowed very large cylinder bores with tight tolerances and thus allowed existing engine designs to be expanded easily, the aluminium cylinders also gave a much better heat conductivity than cast iron liners which is an important factor for a high output engine. The coating was further developed by US Chrome Corporation in the USA in the early 1990s (under the trade name of "Nicom") as a replacement for hard-chrome plated cylinder bores for Mecury Marine Racing, Kohler Engines, and as a repair replacement for factory-chromed snowmobiles, dirt bikes, ATVs, watercraft and automotive V8 liners/bores."

"Porsche started using this on the 1970 917 race car, and later on the 1973 911 RS. Porsche also used it on production cars, but for a short time switched to Alusil due to cost savings for their base 911. Nikasil cylinders were always used for the 911 Turbo and RS models. Nikasil coated aluminum cylinders allowed Porsche to build air-cooled engines that had the highest specific output of any engine of their time. Nikasil is still used in today's 911s with great success.
Nikasil or similar coatings under other trademarks are also still widely used in racing engines, including those used in Formula One and ChampCar. "

"Suzuki currently uses a race-proven nickel phosphorus-silicon-carbide proprietary coating trademarked SCEM (Suzuki Composite Electro-chemical Material) to minimize cylinder size and improve heat dissipation, e.g., on the engine of the Suzuki_TL1000S and Suzuki DL650 V-Strom and Hayabusa motorcycles."

 

Im still driving the **** out of them after almost 2 years.
S4 rotors and 3mill with cermet coated houseings.
Made 500 whp at 20 psi pump gas and still going.

I cant tell you how much difference it makes or if it even makes a difference all i can say is what its doing up to now!
If Adam is the builder then i can say he seems to have done me right!

 

My rotors and housings were coating during the engine build from the guys at Turblown. The coatings haven't flaked after inspect while I was in the process of a To4 conversion. My oil temps are lower than normal, infact the car runs quite cool all the time.