engine type 546

[Alan Hall]

Heiner,
Should have said it earlier.....the engine looks great!
Alan

[Dick Weiss]

Heiner,

I think the problem is the 'Nicky' coating which affects the amount of expansion compared to the full aluminum
cylinder(?) which had your clearance dimension listed per spec book. Also, the ring gaps would be affected, too.
I agree w/Jacques' statement about a proper crosss-hatch finish should be done.
I'd suggest re-contacting LN engineering about their findings about proper clearances w/the coating.
Early next year, I'm having a set of 4-cam cylinders 'Nickyd'.

Dick

[Jacques Lefriant]

Hi Dick
no worries he has the right clearance. honing Nicasil must be done with diamond abrasives special care has to be taken to maintain roundness since the pressure of the hopefully multi stones will distort the bore. If you use regular stones you will not remove much and you will basically smear the nickle carrier and not leave the silicon carbide particles to cut the rings so you end up with a glazed effect. this is why it is recommended to use the ball hone if you do not have access to diamond hones. LN engineering has Millenium plate their cylinders i use a different company that is international and the process was developed overseas. i have had them do about 500+ motorcycle cylinders and 100+ 4-Cam/911. these were reworks of orginal chromal/ferral cylinders LN does reworks but the majority are their new alloy cylinders. It would be interesting to ascertain which firm has done the cylinders for him. Mahle does this type of service and it should be the best. I assume he is in europe by the looks of the Shenk Dyno
j

[Heiner Fees]

Alan,
thank you for the link. I did not know this. I will try to install this metal sheet.
My next step is to drain the oil out and look inside with an endoscope camera through the
hole for the oil sieve and the spark plug.
If there is no demage of the Nicasil coating or any metal flakes in the oil we will start the running in prozess again. Maybe it needs more running time.
Heiner

[Heiner Fees]

Jacques,
You are right I am located in Germany.
The cylinders were coated by http://www.langcourt.com/ in England.
Heiner

[Jacques Lefriant]

Hi Heiner
They have a lot of experience I have used their affiliate in the states with excellent results'
j

[Alan Hall]

Heiner,
As Jacques mentioned you should be using the original type vented valve covers, but looking at the photo of the engine on the dyno it looks like you have the later non-vented covers, if so I would change those before you run it again. Vented covers should be pretty easy to find. I have attached a couple of photos of a vented cover.
Alan

[Matthew Devereux]

Per Jacques the cylinder finish does not look like a proper crosshatch. Pictures can be deceiving but the surface finish looks rough. Over lubrication of rings on assembly can be problematic too.

[Jacques Lefriant]

Hi Matthew
I looked at some Langcourt cylinders and the finish could be correct. Most installers will assemble Nicasil dry to promote early break in. With Nicasil redone cylinders it is essential to clean them and after cleaning i wipe them with a clean oiled rag till no color shows and then remove excess oil.
j

[Heiner Fees]

The test with the vented valve covers and the OIL VAPOR BARRIER was not successful.
After disassembling the cylinder and the piston we measured the diameter and the ring gap.
All of this values was in specifications. The surface of the cylinder and
piston looks perfect. The contact between ring and cylinder was on the circumference very good
The contact over the hight of the rings was 2/3. So we could not find any error.
We change the cylinders and the piston to new one.
In comparison with to the Nikasil plated cylinders from Langcourt (http://www.langcourt.com/index.html)
the oil temperature was reduced 15° under same conditions.
So today we had a successfully test run with the new cylinders.
Thank for all your feedback.
Heiner

[Alan Hall]

Heiner,
Glad to hear you were able to resolve the issue with the engine. What type of cylinders and pistons did you use to replace the nicasil coated originals?
Alan

[Joris Koning]

Love that dyno! Whats going on with the muffler?

[Heiner Fees]

I use new repro Nicasil cylinder and piston.


The coating of the muffler was not good enough. During the weekend I will blast and repaint the muffler with a better paint > 800°

[Alan Hall]

Heiner,
Those pistons and cylinders look very nice! Just out of curiosity, who supplied them?
Alan

[James Davies]

Glad you got your problems resolved Heiner! The dyno sheet looks great. Peak power at 4100 RPM. Very nice. I bet it will be more driveable than the 528.

I believe those piston/cylinder sets are made by Stefi Gencev in Teplice, Czech Republic, a stone's throw from Dresden, and not far from where Ferdinand Porsche was born in Liberec.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/ ... id=1404632

I've heard good things about them.