Tungsten Disulfide burnishing

With regard to engine assembly, I've received several queries that
generally went like this:
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I need help in understanding how to burnish the coating on. I first
tried the dremmel but the stuff slung off, Then I went to the sponge
but it did not appear to be working , I am now attempting a coating
with the scotchbrite side. How did you do it?
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Begin with a surface that is perfectly free of lubrication. There
might even be a slight haze of rust but that's okay; it will be
removed as the TDX is applied.

Start with your largest parts first, such as your cylinder barrels. I
found a tendency to use TOO MUCH of this stuff. I began with a
conical pile of powder about 1/8" (3mm) high. I used a 'distressed'
toothbrush to apply the powder, working from both ends of the barrel.
( 'Distressed' meaning the toothbrush was not new; the bristles were
spread out; not the sort of thing you'd want for brushing teeth. ) I
didn't apply much pressure. With the barrel on the edge of the work
bench and myself comfortably seated, I worked the powder into the
surface with a left-right motion for about half the depth of the bore
then turned the barrel end for end, applied another pile of powder and
repeated the process.

The barrel was then rotated 180 degrees and the procedure was
repeated. By the time I finished the fourth surface it was obvious
that the toothbrush, which was a 'fine-toothed' or soft-bristled type,
was wholly impregnated with the powder.

This procedure uses more TDX than is needed, as you will discover in
the next step. Unfortunately, I haven't found a more economical
method of applying the powder.

I made up a pad of 0000 steel wool and commenced burnishing the barrel
by holding the pad with my fingers whilst wearing a Nitrile glove on
that hand. I rotated the barrel several times as needed, always
working from the same end. When I achieved a surface having a uniform
appearance I flipped the barrel end for end and repeated the same
procedure working from the lower end.

By the time I finished the first barrel the toothbrush and the
burnishing pad were impregnated with the powder.

I repeated the procedure on the other three barrels, using slightly
less TDX than on the first. Indeed, as the work progressed I was able
to recover some TDX by tapping the toothbrush against the barrel.

When all four barrels were done I stored the toothbrush, burnishing
pad and rubber glove in a plastic bag. The barrel(s) then received a
few drops of 30W motor oil which was spread using a pad made from a
piece of paper toweling. A new glove was used for this. The pad
appeared to pick-up a considerable quantity of TDX in that it turned
black. After the second or third barrel there was no need to add any
oil, the pad being fully impregnated. The oily pad and the oily
rubber glove were stored in a plastic bag.

This procedure takes 20 to 30 minutes per barrel.

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Generally, this same procedure was used for all other steel parts.
Cast iron parts, such as the camshaft and cam followers, required
slightly more powder per unit of surface area. The cam-followers
were held in the hand and rotated against the impregnated pad of steel-
wool. The upper machined portion of the distributor's driven-gear
received a similar treatment, in that the distributor's driven-gear
was held in one hand whilst being rotated against the steel-wool pad.
The ends of the push-rods were rotated against a paper pad charged
with about one cylinder's-worth of TDX.

The cam gears were simply brushed. No effort was made to burnish
them. No TDX was applied to the bronze scroll-gear but was applied to
the cast-iron driven-gear as well as the shims.

When doing the crankshaft, degreasing was done to each journal
individually using lacquer thinner. After the work was done a small
nylon-bristle bore-brush was used to clean the oiling channels to rid
them of any residue from the steel-wool pad. The same cleaning was
done for the modified rocker arms, using pipe-cleaners rather than a
bristled brush.

When doing the camshaft and crankshaft I tried using a 'shoe-shine'
motion and a paper towel, folded to a suitable width and backed-up
with duct tape. The TDX was applied to the shaft and distributed with
the toothbrush before being 'shined.' This method seemed to work
pretty well but the paper wore out quickly .
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CYLINDER HEADS

The cylinder heads were done at a different time than assembly of the
lower end, and preparation of the cylinder barrels. Some of the
procedures differed slightly but I gained the impression from Leonard
that the idea was to apply, and to burnish into, the powder into a
bare, unlubricated surface. Toward that end, I burnished the shims by
rubbing them against a piece of fine-gauge steel-wool impregnated with
TDX, whereas I did the warpy washers by hand.

The valve stems were burnished by 'pumping' them back & forth through
a steel-wool pad impregnated with TDX. TDX was applied to the
degreased guides using a nylon bristle brush.

No TDX was applied to the swivel-foot adjustment screws. These parts
had been soaked in oil for several days and I didn't think I could
remove all of the oil. Instead, TDX was applied to the tip of the
valve stem.

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During my first experiments with TDX, using 1-cylinder lawn mower
engines, I tried using applicators made of 1/4" wooden dowels, sawn
to accept cloth or steel wool pads. This was chucked into a 1/4"
variable-speed drill-motor. Other experiments used a variable-speed
Dremel tool, cotton pads and wire brushes. Inspection of the
resulting surface at about 7x showed better results were obtained when
the TDX was applied by hand. 'Better' in this case included economy
of application, in that using powered tools tended to waste a lot of
TDX, as compared to applying it by hand.

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Finally, I should repeat that I've only applied TDX and the various
coatings to ONE full-scale engine, a 1600 assembled from salvaged
parts and configured for vehicular use. The parts were 'to spec' but
often on the high side, especially with regard to the bearings.

My original intention was to run this engine to death on the test
stand, with periodic tear-downs to document wear. Unfortunately, the
high cost of gasoline forced me to discontinue the running of this
engine after it accumulated about 80hours. At that time I tore down
the right-hand head. Unfortunately, there was nothing to report.
There was no evidence of any wear at all.

-R.S.Hoover