I'm not dead set on this it's just a theory on my end and it's in no way of a no insult to John on his pistons, now would I rather have a few piston scuffs instead of a cracked piston and ruined cylinder yeah so you loose in a few areas to gain in others. Big injector pulse surely makes the problem worse, guys with huge injectors and smaller pulse width's with these pistons probably never see anything on the pistons.
Yeah I'm gonna say while this set only made a few short pulls, they saw the biggest pulse width [2850us], most heat [1800f], with shortest break in period [has oil pressure, send it] ... :rofl:
Which all those points alone fall under several possible causes listed in that PDF. If you read each description matching where these show contact, none are definitive. Plus these piston tops were shaved an additional .010 to match block deck work. So it's totally possible they are deforming slightly, or oil film was getting washed down with fuel, allowing coating to touch the wall.
And while you won't find a picture anywhere, nor did Jon receive it back, I have seen a cracked "coated" oval bowl with my own eyes. The crack went right across the top half of the oval cut, not centered over wrist pin as is most common. So the weakest point has obviously moved with his design mod.
But how does all this play into the coating issue? To me, it doesn't change fact the coating is what damaged the rings and mauled the cyl walls. If we had started out with bigger injectors as switching to now would it still occurred, most likely yes. If they had only coated the tops and not over the edge, then some of the missing chips in set # 2 would likely have still made their way down into the rings. That I believe true. So TBC is still bad... MMKAY!!
The gold coating seems to be applied thinner, and adheres better than this TBC. I've spoke to several builders running on forged pistons in gas engines and none report any such issues. I can't find anyone who has used the TBC, but recall someone posting a pic on here from years back showing it cracked and lifted also. Maybe I'll do a search when have time.