Has anyone ever used -

Ceramic Lifters or
Aluminium Cylinders - Nikasil

As made by LN Engineering - USA?

Anyone got any experience here in Australia with these?

to find out more about these i'd suggest going on the http://www.shoptalkforums.com  . it's the only place i've ever read anything about them.

kai

Why not be the first Aussie to use them

I "think" a few Porsche motors used them.

I "Think" this id one of the differences between the "T" and "S" motors of the 72-ish 2.2?L sixes.

They certainly cost more.

Pretty sure a few of the Euro dirt bikes use them as well.

Ceramic lifters?? never heard of 'em.
Nikasil liners? Yep, similar to hard chrome plating.
This method of cylionder lining has been used successfully in bikes since the early '70's. It is often cheaper to originally produce a plain ally cylinder, machine it and plate it than using a cast iron liner.
Nikasil is usually only successfully plated directly to aluminium
Verrry long lasting, low friction and being a nikasil plated aluminium cylinder, the expansion rates can be more closely matched to the piston expansion rate making for the possibility of tighter piston/liner clearances and quieter operation, particularly when cold and resulting in better tolerance to temp ranges, better performance due to improved thermal transfer and lower friction and much longer life. Plated aluminium cylinders are usually a shitload lighter in weight as well.

There is an issue with the material the rings are made of and close attention needs to be paid to what rings are fitted and chrome plated rings cannot be used. The usual clobber is plain ductile iron.

You can get generic nikasilled aluminium liners that can be used to sleeve an iron barrel but you dont really get the full benefit of plated liners when they are sleeved into an iron cylinder. However, it is a worthwhile exercise to do when piston sizes are standardised to one size.

A nikasilled bore will last many lifetimes of pistons under extreme use and often only a light deglaze of the plating is ever necessary before the fitment of new pistons and rings.

This mod is often seen in older road bikes with iron cylinders such as old trumpies and BSA's and the like where the supply of various oversize pistons is a bit short.

Oce upon a time, if the plating was damaged, the usual practise was to throw away the barrel as the only places that could re-plate these bores were in Europe and the price was prohibitive but there are now numerous workshops that re-plate nikasil and hard chrome bores in Australia at prices competitive with old fashionede iron re-sleeving.

There you go.
L8tr
E

[Edited on 24/5/04 by tassupervee]

For info on both Nikasil liners and ceramic lifters check out the LN Engineering site:

http://www.lnengineering.com/index.html

But before you get too excited, check the prices!!!

Yes,I was checking out the price yesterday-$400US+ freight.Makes them fairly expensive but are reportedly indestructible and show no signs of cam lobe destruction and can run much higher valve spring pressure.Can be used as is in Type 4 motors,but in Type 1 would need to have lifter bores sleeved to prevent case flogging out. Could probably justify the expense if you were building a high revving race motor-but for normal street use?????????

Yes i have deceided to take the plunge and do the aluminimium cylinders!!

As for the ceramic lifters these are going to have to wait until the cylinders and new JE pistons arrive.

Engine will get the aluminimum cylinders and ceramic lifters.

Will suit the autocraft heads and turbos nicely and only chance i have to keep the whole lot cool....

You know you could get em made in Aus a lot cheaper, you can get the Nicky coating near to where you live.

2500 us $ faaaaaaaaaaark

How do you make alluminium clyinders? Cast or turned from a piece of 150mm diameter specialist alluminium. I would like to have a go at turning some cylinders and getting them nicky coated.

Exactly, turned from billet.
You could cast them as well if you could be bothered.
Most 2 stroke bike plated cylinders are made this way.
L8tr
E

I am going to look into billet prices. Any ideas where nikasil can be done.

There are a coiuple of mobs in Oz that do Nikasil plating nowadays.
The only one that comes to mind right now is a crowd in Melbourne called ELECTROSIL.
I cannot find their address as we speak sorry.

I would also consider contacting SERCO in Brisbane. They have been supplying replacement Nikasil plated aluminium liners for many years for the likes of older brittish bikes as an alternative to pressing in iron liners into the aluminium cylinders.
This means only one size of piston is required for a given application.

Not the very best method as far as absolute heat transfer efficiency but next best thing and may be a significantly cheaper alternative to spinning up new cylinders out of billett stock and having them plated.
From memory, and I will sure stand corrected, the plating and honing process comes to around 200 odd bucks per bore.

I cannot remember how thick the aluminium sleeves are but using the biggest possible cylinders, boring them to maximum and then sleeveing them with the plated liners may be a worthwhile exercise.

L8tr
E

cost a bomb to machine from billots material wise, IMO best to have em cast. then machined and plated.

trouble is there is not the the market for them in this country.