this is probably a good time to talk about thermal coatings. If one believes that aluminum is better because he dissipates heat better, then I wonder why serious engines have their combustion chambers and piston tops coated with a thermal barrier coating to keep heat "in".
I always thought it was because heat makes power altho' I also know that it also helps eliminate hot spots within the chamber that might trigger detonation. We did not talk about this back in '63 when I was suffering thru thermodynamics, for sure.
We also know that coating the inside of the intake ports helps minimize charge temperatures that might be elevated due to the cylinder heads being heated up from the combustion process from hot spots in the coolant passages or from the general distribution of heat thru out the surrounding metal. We know this is good for two reasons at least. One, it is nice to keep the charged air cool to maintain density, but more importantly, it helps reduce the likelihood of pre-ignition which is much more deadly than detonation.
Makes me wonder why if aluminum allows us to make more power because it transfer more heat out of the chamber than does iron and we can then run more compression to make more power, why we coat the surfaces to prevent this....and that makes me wonder if we coat the surfaces to keep this heat inside, does that mean we can run less compression to make more power?
This all makes mid-east politics sound easy
I guess that is why I like my turbo cars so much. I can control compression with the wastegate controller!
