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Letter 15551
Nikasil liners-pistons compatibility
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I have a Porsche 4 cylinder engine (968) with Nikasil cylinder
liners. I want to install a low compression piston set but none of
the top aftermarket piston makers manufacture this kind of piston,
and Mahle the original supplier can no longer manufacture those.
Which are the specifications for a piston to be compatible with the
Nikasil liners? Can I use a regular piston and give them a special
coating? If so, who can do the coating?
Thanks very much.
Angel L. Martinez
- Utuado, PR, USA
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Angel,
I believe that the problem is not the pistons themselves, which
are made of aluminum (I guess). I would rather look at the rings. If
they have a chromium plate on the OD, it might damage and scratch the
nikasil of the inner bores. If you can get non-chrome plated rings,
that will be much better. If not, you can probably afford to dechrome
one and measure how much diameter you lost with the gone chrome and
compensate it with oversized rings or simply live with it. One way to
de-chrome is to immerse the ring in
Muriatic Acid [link is to product info at Amazon] until gassing
stops. Remember, the problem are the hardness and mating
characteristics of the rings to the liners.
Good luck,
Guillermo Marrufo
Monterrey, NL, Mexico
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