i talked to this guy whos into american v8 muscle and he was telling me a few tricks he used to use when he raced. he said take the piston and spray the top with some VHTwhite paint (to reflect heat) and itll gain a little hp from keeping all the heat in the combustion chamber instead of making all the heat go through the bottom of the piston and into the bottom end. is this true or even sort of true? i also read about gettina little more from taking the oxegen sensor out of the manifold and putting it in the beggining of your intake (says it tricks your sensor by taking it away from your engine heat and up from where the air is cooler, and gives your cylinders a little more gas)

 

The oxygen sensor doesn't even begin to operate until it is like several hundred degrees. Until then, the engine is getting a predetermined ratio of air and fuel, so taking the O2 sensor and putting it somewhere cooler, would cause it to stay at that same ratio all the time.

 

The paint thing sounds like a joke because white reflects light, not heat. As far as getting more gas, you're just messing up the a/f ratio. If you want more gas, give it more air, plain and simple.

 

Yeah, the o2 sensor doesn't function until the system is warmed up...and from my experience with my neon having a non functioning o2 for a while, it causes your car to run lean. And in the neon it was noticably lean...on occasion it was to the point where it would actually fall on its face stumbling as if I had just run the tank empty.

 

Both are just the insane ramblings of a fractured mind obviously.

 

Imo....punch that guy in the ballz.[8D]

 

I don't think paint would last very long in a combustion chamber. Even if it did, between carbon buiild up and oil in the cylinder it would not stay white long. The cylinders and pistons are sort of silverwhich reflects pretty well.I don't think you would gain anything even if the pistons had mirrors on top (or ceramic for that matter). The exhaust, oil, and coolant are what takes the heat away. Keep the block and oil cool, and you will keep the bottom end cool. Cool being a very relative term. The muscle cars I played with in the 80's had oil coolers and big oil pans to keep the parts cool. Not sure if they do that for the smaller engines. I bought my Civic to save on gas, not race. Iam suprised how much I like it considering my last three vehicles were pick up trucks.

No idea about the O2 sensor.

 

white reflects radiation heat, not the direct exchange of heat. if you know any thermal dynamics one would figure that painting your pistons white would do nothing but **** up your cylinder walls and possibly valves when it started to chip off or melt. as far as the o2 sensor, its the same theory that putting a resistor in the 02 sensor plug will trick the engine into thinking its cold. the truth is you will barely see any power as much as you'll see loss in gas milage. plus, its never good to trick your engine. honda spent all the time they did tuning that thing for a reason

 

both just are gay

 

Well I have to say that is by far one of the dumbest performance modifications I have ever heard of. In addition to what everyone else has said, picture this... You paint the top of your pistons white. You start the engine. Paint ****ing melts!