Bling Bling!

My polishing spree continued this week, and I polished one of the pistons to a mirror finish. I figured it would be a good idea, and well, frankly it just looks damn good.

I did a search on Speed Talk to see if there is any performance gains with a polished piston/combustion chamber. The consensus seems to be that there is no benefit in polishing, but it won't hurt either. This thread has an indepth discussion of the topic.


I also lapped the valves. This took some time, but I am sure it will make a difference. The exhaust valves was quite pitted, and they must have been leaking a bit. The intake valves was in much better shape, but their seats was pitted. I guess the reason for this pattern is the difference in temprature. The exhaust valves get quite a bit hotter than the intake valves, and that is the reason why they pit, while the intakes doesn't.

Left is a lapped and unlapped valve, my cameraphone won't take good enough pictures to show the pitting on the unlapped valve, but it is quite obviuos when you have it in your hand.

I had to lap the exhaust 2-3 times with the coarse lapping compund, and then finish them with one lapping with the fine compund. The intakes was easier and only required one time with each compund.