More crazy BMW motor build bling

[Jon K]

Thanks Steve!

I have some more updates... and they're pretty ridiculous.



Today my friend Jay and I spent all day preparing a few things for both our cars.

I brought my cylinder head which I had spent nearly 2 hrs masking off in order protect all critical surfaces from powder coat. I left a few studs in because I intend on removing them and replacing when done. Anyway here are some pictures of that.

This is the head before:






(sorry for soft pic the camera didn't want to focus on the puffy cylinder head... powder has a weird effect when not cured)

Once baked, this is what came out...

[Jon K]

Its hard to photograph the reflections from the head, but its a very near chrome effect, looks freaaaaaaking amazing if you ask me. Here are some more close up pics...

[Jon K]

Once that was done I was super motivated to do the block. I don't recall anyone ever doing a silver block so I was really pumped to see the out come.

So, I originally intended to just coat the block over the factory finish - well, that didn't turn out to be a good idea because Jay noticed some crap buildup in corners even after having the block hot tanked. So, that meant I needed to blast the block. Sooo, break out the high temp/high strength masking tape yet again, and prepare to bead blast the most awkward thing in the world...



Pre- blasting...



Post- blasting - the blackish/brown stuff you see is the original factory baked on paint. Most if all of the grease/oil was blasted clean off.

[Jon K]

Fuzzy block...

And then...







So after all that it was only like 1:30p so we still had more time!!!

On to the pistons...



So, the ceramic coating was done with the exception of one piston that bubbled... talked to the manufacturer and they said that the piston might have needed to out gas or perhaps it was put in the oven before air drying, or too thick of application, etc., etc.

So, blasted the piston again with al oxide, which took the ceramic off with some time (good to know its really on there!). Re-coated the piston, let it air dry for more than ample time this round, and presto it's done.

But more importantly, Jay helped spray the Dry Film Lubricant on - basically some sort of high temperature teflon coating for the side skirts. In a vacuum this will make more horsepower but in reality it will definitely cut down on wear. It wasn't the easiest thing to apply but Jay is the skill there, I just aluminum oxide blast and mask - the first application we had an issue on one or two pistons because, we think, the acetone used to clean the surface after blasting seemed to carry some of the adhesive down from the masking tape and when sprayed with the DFL1 coating, it didn't sit properly and had runs. I blasted them over again and Jay sprayed it again, and it was good to go. Oh yeah masking on this **** is really important if you decide to do it. I left about ooh about 3mm maybe down from the bottom ringland til where the teflon starts. This seemed to be the norm on all commercial coating process pictures I could find, but also it made it easier and more practical when masking off the wrist pin area - nothing like trying to aluminum oxide blast a 2mm sliver of area with masking tape on either side!

Anyway, we all know what the pistons looked like before but what the hell..



You can see how I masked the tops off (ceramic coated) and the wrist pin inset. I didn't want to coat the wristpin area because it would be quite hard to keep it linear.

[Jon K]

Then, baked at 300F for 1 hr ...



Nice and uniform!

And final picture, I swear..



There is the region I masked off. Looks really really good and uniform. To be honest I cannot really tell with my hand if its any more "slick" but I am not sure I am supposed to haha especially with it dry. The manufacturer said when oil sits on it, it's slick and that it will reduce wear and drag, and thus free power and durability. We'll see - same product all the commercial places use though!

Oh I lied about the last picture, I wanted to post a picture of Jays new OBD1 valve cover - his OBD2 um... melted, so he got a cruddy OBD1, blasted it, and he tried out a nice wrinkle black which honestly looks ridiculous. I am thinking of buying a third valve cover (I now have one silver, one gold, and now I want a wrinkle black) to add contrast. Look how good it looks sitting on my cylinder head!




Ok that's the end of the updates.

[Macv]

Very nice pictures. What powder coating equipment do you use?

[Jon K]

We use a simple eastwood hot coat gun, but use a big "back draft" coating area, large large plasting cabinets with collection and recirc, and walk in ovens.

[Qube]

****er. Sorry. When emotions get up there it's all the same response. ****er. Nice work

[Sam-Son]

As always Jon I'm blown away by your work

[Jon K]

As always Jon I'm blown away by your work

Thanks sometimes I impress myself even! This time, I think I did just that.