In theory they hold more oil which means less friction and wear along with making for a better seal....less blowby and more combustion pressure should mean more power. The extra oil could also keep the rings cooler and prevent mirco welding.

 

No but I have been wanting to. The owner is having too much fun with it. I told him I'd buy a top end gasket kit and to just bring the whole bike over so I could pull the top end off just for some visual inspection and pics. I told him I wanted to do it before he put a bunch of time on it, so we'll see. I believe he has 5 hrs on it now. He claims it is very fast. Which is nice to hear considering his race bike is a 2016 KTM 450sx limited edition. Those things make crazy power.

 

Here is the way I understand it.

Most people believe that blow by actually comes from combustion coming from between the outer ring face and the cylinder wall. Sure there is some, but the majority actually comes from behind the ring. It goes over the ring, down the back side in the ring land and then out the bottom. This is why controlling ring flutter is such a big deal.

Now, according to the astronaut that owns Microblue, this type of coating creates a surface on the top/bottom of the ring and the ring land such that blow by is drastically eliminated from that area.

I will say this, we fired that bike a put a rev happy 15 minutes of run time on it on the the stand checking for leaks and dialing the carb for idle and throttle response. Then we let it cool down completely. Re-fired it and got it warm (probably not full operating temp), put a compression gauge on it and the mother ****** kicked 215 psi. You better have some good boots on to kick that ****** over for sure. A 215 psi 265 cc 2-stroke bangs the power-band like a boss too.

 

The first set of rings that Microblue send back to looked like the pic below:

The pic at the bottom, I pulled out of the package, sat in my varsol tank and hit it with the plastic brush like 2 times. **** wiped completely off. You can also see in the pics that it appears the rings where sitting on something when the coating was applied (you can see the 3 or 4 little scuff marks where the coating was jacked. I was very disappointed in this product. I called him on the phone and sent all the **** back. It came back looking much better and that is how we have been running it ever since.

When I asked him what happened with the first set, he told me that his "proprietary coating media" was contaminated by a new employee that coated a bunch of dirty *** diesel engine parts the day before.

I could go on and on with the crazy stories this guy told me but would need to start a new thread for that. He just over sells the **** out of his product to the point that he sounds like a madman on the phone. Before my customer decided to get everything coated, I was convinced that the guy was a nut case and told my client that the decision was up to him. Obviously he let him coat every single part in the motor and it is still running today so I have mixed feelings because I have not been able to tear it back down to see what it all looks like.

At the end of the day (and like I posted above) the damn thing kicks some major cylinder pressure, runs like a spotted ***'d ape and from the limited time I have on the bike, I've never felt a transmission that is as smooth as his turned out.

 

Nice!!! What percentage leakdown did it have?

I spent $15 on the powder and already had the other stuff to burnish it onto the rings so if it works then cool and if it doesn't then it's just some time spent having fun trying something new. I put acetone on them to clean them prior to and then tried to wipe it off with the acetone and it didn't do anything. If I can get that good of a seal then it's gonna scream!

 

I really want to know what that bike looks like torn down.

I don't think 215 psi in a 2 stroke is anything to call home about. Pretty common in the 250r world.

 

its a 4 stroke tho

 

The dirt bike is 2 stroke...

 

Yeah, 215 psi isn't earth shattering, but it is considerably more than what what a stock pump gas bike would be.

I'll talk to him this week and see if I can't get it over hear for a quick tear down.

 

Acid etched/degreased then applied the Alodine (zinc chromate conversion) to act as a primer....hopefully it sticks well to the aluminum