Hi Paul,

   Just for info, the front housing is one to two months from first
test.  CNC programming is done and minor pattern corrections were made.
The first handful of potential production housings should be received
from the casting shop next week.  They must go to the machinist and then
to the flame sprayer.  After that, they will be installed into a waiting
all-aluminum peripheral port engine for evaluation and, once they are
proven, promotion.  We  have never promoted the parts in the
past because we were waiting until we had all three completed.  That
time is now very close.  As an aside, I delayed the front housing for a
few years because of the rumors we heard about the Renesis engine -
potentially making the peripheral exhaust engine obsolete.  That is now
clearly not the case, and I plan to build an aluminum side intake -
peripheral exhaust port engine after the Peripheral intake test engine
to determine if we can get better results - power AND bsfc - than the
Renesis.

   To date, we have never had a case of coating lift in service -
except where other engine failure resulted in extensive damage to
everything in the neighborhood.

   The flame spray powder is a carbide material.  In the past, I was
not being coy about the material.  The flame spray shop simply didn't
give me any real spec on the material.  We went to them for their
engineering opinion on what would work best, and they used it.  In fact,
the material used changed a couple of times when some powders went out
of production.  At the very beginning, we were very concerned about
coatings.  The first part we tested (an intermediate housing) had
different materials on the two sides.  We have never been able to tell
any difference in wear with any different carbide coating - they are all
so good, it just doesn't matter.

Jim Mederer [Racing Beat]


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