Does anyone here have any experience or opinions on using DLC coatings on rocker arms to reduce friction and increase hardness? This is apparently a fairly common practice in the motorcycle world where rocker arm wear has been a problem. By reducing friction these coatings should also reduce parasitic drag in the engine…

Oerlikon offers a couple coatings that suit this application (WCC and VLC*)
http://www.oerlikon.com/coatin...7.php

I’d also like to know if anyone has any experience with Titanium Nitrated retainers. The theory is that the coating will reduce wear of the retainers by increasing surface hardness. This coating can also be applied by Oerlikon.

Thanks,
Doug

 

in for more info

 

buddyclub currently does black nitride coating on their Titanium retainers as is.

So you can buy it like that.

 

I read of one CUP engine builder that stated he likes coatings so much, hed put them on everything. even his cornflakes if he could.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by bluesaint &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">buddyclub currently does black nitride coating on their Titanium retainers as is.

So you can buy it like that.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I know of one member on H-T who had his retainers coated but can find the original post to contact him on his experience...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BABY NSX &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

I know of one member on H-T who had his retainers coated but can find the original post to contact him on his experience...</TD></TR></TABLE>

Sorry to bring this back but I found the thread I was referring to:

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=455732

Does anyone have anything to add to the discussion on TiN coatings and their effectiveness on retainer wear rates?

 

for a while i was searching for a high friction "carbon coating" for syncro's rather than paying a fortune for gearspeed stuff. from what i gather carbon coating is some form of crystalline structure that is considered near frictionless. it wasnt hard finding quite a few companies that do the stuff but after several calls and no one who knew of a friction enhancer i gave up and tossed the phone numbers.

btw, buffing the butts of the valvesprings will be a step in the direction you are headed.

 

Do you have any experience with the gearspeed stuff? Are they worth the price?I've been looking into the carbon coated synchros but ive never heard of anyone's opinions/experiences on them.

 

installed them for a customer, never drove in the car. was obvious the sycro ring grabbed the taper of the gear much harder than a standard ring.

 

huh! Sounds Like I plan. I would be willing to send off some extra rocker arms and retainers to get coated. Do you ever have to worry about it wearing off though.

 

My company is/was on the leading edege of the newset form of TiN coatings, we developed a way to alter it by combining multiple substrates in conjunction of the Tit nitride with other properties like thermal barriers and Moly type antiu friction coatings. So picture a coatin just as hard and dutrable as TiN but with the thermal barrier properties of the most affective thermal barrier, now throw in the lubris properties of Moly coting.. We pretty much bankrupted the company building this coater and then the canadian military pulled the contract tthey had promised for a bunch of certain parts .. Who know what will happen to it now.. It sucks because i was going to be the guy running the one we were building for here in the US.. That coating had the highest wear tolerance greater then DLC and would be the baddest coating ever avialble.. I had great plans for header and turbine coatings as well as valvetrain and everything esle.. Hope some big investor comes along to get it rolling again.. I keep telling the owners to foget the military contarctts and contact the Nascar guys.. They will pay to own the rights to this stuff in the automotive market..

 

So do you do these coatings now? I think i may have some things I would like coated. It will have to wait until I get back to the states though.