With the intention to evaluate the efficiency of different coatings applied to valve tappets -a component used in combustion engines -was proposed some coatings that was compared to an coating already known by the industry. For the evaluations were performed micro hardness tests, micro abrasive wear tests and studies of the microstructure of the coatings. The coatings studied were: conventional gas nitriding, this one already used by the industry; ionic implantation by plasma immersion (IIPI) of nitrogen; IIPI of nitrogen over the layer already existing of conventional gas nitriding; against a sample that was tested without any layer of coating. The micro abrasive tests were performed in an equipment named ball-on-block, using abrasive solution of silicon carbide (SiC), and varying the normal load from 1, 2 and 3N. The results showed that the conventional gas nitriding performed the highest level of micro hardness on the surface, and also the highest level of micro abrasion wear; this result prevailed in this sample in all the normal load applied. Generally, the sample that obtained the best level of wear, in other words, the lowest worn volume was the sample whithout any coating.