The Official 356Talk Forum

Has anyone any experience with these sets? Good or bad I would love to know. I have a set of the cast iron big bores in my "A" and they have worked well for upwards of 20K miles but the price on the Birals is good so wonder if they are any better or if there is a performance difference that is worth the effort.

Have put a 1,000 miles on mine so far with no problems. I'll give you an update at 20K miles.

Personally, I can't see any reason to convert from cast iron to biral. The factory biral cylinders were much more likely to go out of round under hard conditions, like racing, than the cast iron. Upgrading to the billet aluminum with Nikasil liners, now that would be a different story...

I just yesterday had to grind clearance on the lowest large fin as the fin hit two of the domed case nuts on each cylinder on that side of the engine before the cylinders were fully seated. These are AA cast iron cylinders. I go my set through CE and Walt recommended the cast iron cylinders, which at that time were less costly.

Phil Planck wrote:I just yesterday had to grind clearance on the lowest large fin as the fin hit two of the domed case nuts on each cylinder on that side of the engine before the cylinders were fully seated. These are AA cast iron cylinders. I go my set through CE and Walt recommended the cast iron cylinders, which at that time were less costly.

What engine do you have in foam car?
I just got done assembling my C engine using the AA big bore kit with cast iron cylinders, and had no clearance issues with the case nuts (acorn or otherwise).

806--- S90 case, 912 heads and crank.

The Biral cyls would have a slightly less cast liner wall thickness and having the cast aluminum fins added to the liners, the same outer/overall shape should clear the acorn nuts and head studs.
The full cast iron cyls would hardly be any stronger, but I've never "crushed one" to compare the 2! Then there's the LN "Nickies"

Dick