true, I have looked for some ceramics and found little help for the individual user.
that and apparently the only reason the ceramic piston top worked on the izuzu is because they had a cast iron piston.
the cast iron had a close enough coefficient of expansion to the ceramic to be bonded and not come loose/crack
if ceramic was bonded/cast into an aluminum piston it would just come free/break up on the first heat cycle...
oh well, it was worth a thought anyway...
I might be in for trying a bunch of ceramic stuff, IF you can convince me it's the right ceramic, and it's affordable. I know the compounds are available, it has been done. F1 engines make extensive use of the stuff. Actually, stuffs, because they use a different ceramic for each type of component. Also, way back about 1989, honda built a mostly ceramic ,750cc i think, bike engine that spun 23000 rpm and was near the automotive goal of adiabatic (not true adiabatic, as in no lost heat, but as in no cooling needed). It used really neat rectangular pistons with rounded corners.
I have neither the time nor the inclination to go track down the ceramics myself right now, but if you seriously need a hand in finding the right compounds, ping me in a couple days, and I may at least be able to get you a couple pointers to get you started. The greatest difficulty will be in getting any of the suppliers to give you the time of day, as it is a big dollar niche market, with application engineers on standby to help any customer with a need/project for the materials, as long as the need is accompanied by a six or seven figure $ demand.
Yeah, it was a great idea, but the problem with a ceramic engine is every part it custom made - no mass production. Also, they don't take kindly to blunt force... That's why jet engines still rely on NiCrCo alloys - they can take a beating without shattering save for a flock of 20 pound geese.
save for a flock of geese.... LOL
I am not looking to build a jet engine here, just some replacement prechambers that will be affordable and efficient. I do not think that there will be any blunt force, as there shouldn't be and contact with the piston. I am thinking of using a protruding pin design to allow for the precups to stay in place. The pin will be pushed into the head via a small hole drilled into the head and precup to hold it in place and prevent it from moving/falling into the combustion chamber. It will likely have a handle or something to allow for easy removal, for head rebuilding puposes.
here is a rudimentary picture... and I mean rudimentary, I am no artist:
I will argue that they should be a press in interference fit, just like the stock ones...
The problem is that the ceramic design comes from toyota, and they used cast iron heads, not aluminum. The worry is that they may fall out because of the metal/aluminum expansion. Since I cannot predict this, I want to be safe rather than sorry, I am the kinda guy that likes to have a contingency plan.
There's a pretty hard explosion inside the precup and it all has to get out through the little hole.
So if the cup isn't tight in the head it's gonna flop around until it ruins the head or breaks.
a big thanks from me.