CERAMIC COATING OF SCREAMING EAGLE HEADS

[07FLSTN-1]

Mike,

First and foremost, "Thanks" for all your techical assistance and this great HD forum.

I will be installing the Screaming Eagle Pro TC Performance Heads P/N 16952-06 on my 2007 FLSTN 96B.
I am also going to clean-up the ports and port match the intake and exhaust. My concern lies with coating the combustion chamber and the intake and exhaust ports. A tech from Mondello Performance recommended I consider his service to "Ceramic coat the SE Performance Head combustion chambers, all ports, and the SE pistion tops for better performance. He claimed that his coating job lays down 2-3 mm of ceramic coating material on the metal surfaces which is extremly resistant to carbobn buid-up and retains the heat of combustion in the chamber and ports instead of transfering the heat out to the aluminum head surface, resulting in higher combustion efficiency and cooler running heads and motor.

Mike, are there any negative consequences to coating the SE heads and SE pistons ?

The tech from Mondello could not confirm what coating material they are using, but insisted it was, "Like a Ceremic" material applied to specially prepared surfaces. Is this snake oil ?

How durable are these coatings, can they handle the extreme temps and pressure generated by 10.5:1 compression?
What would 2 mm of added coating to the combustion chambers and the pistons tops do to the compression ratio on these heads. Keep in mind, these chambers are rated at 72cc from the MoCo, Mondello says they need to bead blast the chambers first to remove all powder coating, factory paint, carbon build-up, grime, etc.. Will the addition of ceramic coating (after bead blasting paint) increase the CCs / CR of the heads ?

Finally, is the cost and burden of packing, shipping, and receiving these heads worth the added benefit of ceramic coating the heads (bang for buck) for I-5 cruising and street use ?

Please send reply soon, getting ready to start on these heads...

[Mike]

First, your question on the dyno chart. I tried to move it to general questions but it disappeared! I'm still a mechanic and not a computer scientist. I've got about 200 more charts to post but with racing season in full swing, it'll take some time to get through. The ony other FLSTN chart is for one with SE air cleaner and Vance and Hines big radius 2-2.

Mondello is correct in that the coatings do keep much of the heat in the ports and pipes. This does help make more hp by keeping the incoming charge cooler. Also leads to increased exhaust valve, springs and guide life due to the cooler running. Oil temp also goes down. These are all good things for a street motor. 2-3mm build up seems excessive, base on my experiance it's much less. We've used a company in Texas called Polymer Dynamics and I would check with them on the amount of buildup. You may also call JE pistons as they have info and recommend these coatings. Not normally enough to buildup to require compensating the compression. The reliabiltiy of the coating adhesion is a function of the prep of the surface to which it is applied. Some coating companies will not coat castings that have been run because they cannot be sure that all contaminants can be removed. In the past we have recommended doing only the combustion chamber, exhaust valve face, exh port, piston crown and first 6-8 inches of the exhaust pipe from the head. Coating the intake port really does not do much. Not snake oil, really works.

Biggest reason this is not very popular is that it adds cost and time to motor builds. Also adds complications should the motor have a failure. This last part is why we do not always apply it to race motors. Cost is mostly in the prep. Only you can decide if it is worth the extra effort, but maybe this info will help. Last, if you do the pistons, also polymer coat the skirts and have the top ring land coated to allow the ring to expand easily against the piston surface on the compression stroke. Some of the new H-D pistons are done this way and we do our race, gas ported stuff.
Mike