Topic seems to have shifted to coatings...
AFAIK Tech Line Coatings (home office & manufacturing still in Texas?) is the actual manufacturing source of the coating materials that
most shops use.
http://www.techlinecoatings.com/hi-performance/ NintendoKD, they have a shop in Murrieta, not all that far from you:
Tech Line Coatings, Inc.
26844 Adams Avenue, Murrieta, CA. 92562 (just south of 215/15 freeways' junction)
Sales : 1.972.775.6130
Fax : 1.972.775.8125
Tech Line has coatings to keep heat out, hold heat in, reduce friction, conduct heat away, plus other stuff. They can coat the piston tops (about 0.015", as I understand), combustion chambers (or surfaces, as in our diesels!), valve faces, entire exhaust ports, exhaust manifold interior/exterior, turbine housing inlet, and obviously... an entire post-turbo exhaust system. (That's what I'm counting on; currently saving coins to have some of their handiwork done to a couple of my turbo engine builds!)
Back to your discussion of compression ratios: seems like adding 0.015" to the piston face and a like amount to the combustion surface will require slight milling of piston tops to avoid impact or raising the C.R. too high. But the advantages in superior heat rejection and better fuel burn should be worth it IMO, even for non-racing apps. I'm thinking efficiency & longevity here, more than maximum raw power. Anyone have experience on this?
J.R.
SoCal