I know that if you swap out the PCM of a stock Magnum 5.9 V8 to the Mopar Performance PCM that advances the ignition timing 12 degrees it will ping in hot weather at full throttle begining around 3500 rpm... even if you use 95 AKI Sunoco Premium gasoline.

I have wondered if the quench clearance was tightened up to something less than the typical 0.093 inches whether it would run ping free.

I remember reading where Honda claimed in a published technical paper that the original VTEC cylinder head combustion chamber needed 0.75 millimeter quench clearance to work like they wanted it to work.

Could you close up the quench clearance a significant amount on the factory stock parts by ceramic coating the quench flats of the combustion chamber, and the quench flats of the piston crown, instead of changing pistons, decking the block, or offsetting the con rod pins?

I used to "sputter coat" items like fatigue cracked bolts to go into an electron microscope with pure platinum.

I wonder how thick chrome, copper, zinc or nickel could be coated onto cast iron cylinder head surfaces and aluminum piston crowns?