The B & S "cool bore" engines are just a bare casting, fairly high silicone alloy. Requires special rings, and the pistons are chrome plated . They can last a long time, but you need to take care of them. I have a Allis Chalmers rider with a 2 cylinder 16hp briggs in it. I inherited it from my dad, he bought it in 1984, and passed in 2003. It got well used. I does burn a little oil but not much. still has good compression. The old flathead briggs often developed loose valve guides with oil burning.
Aluminum Cylinders: Still In Awe
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Originally Posted by ragtoplvr
Originally Posted by WyrTwister
Never had one , but I remember the Vega .
Seem to remember the problems were tied in to over heating . Were they caused by over heating ?
Re Vega.
Antifreeze at the time was not good with aluminum. You needed to change every year, and 60% distilled water was better. You still had to watch radiator for plugging, since it was just barely large enough. If the hot light came on it was too late. Adding a temp gage and paying attention was a better solution. If you kept on top of cooling system condition they would last a while. I really only know of one that never overheated, and it was still running at about 80K miles and not burning oil. There were some steel sleeves that you could put in when you rebuilt one. You had to change pistons, oe was iron plated. You still had [censored] carburetor, [censored] transmissions, weak rear end and skinny tires, but you did not have to check the gas and add oil anymore. It was fixed until it rusted out, which did not take long. The chevette was a better car.
Vegas were made to put V8 into them just because. I had friends with Vegas back in the day and they were as bad a every bad thing said about them.
Originally Posted by WyrTwister
Never had one , but I remember the Vega .
Seem to remember the problems were tied in to over heating . Were they caused by over heating ?
Re Vega.
Antifreeze at the time was not good with aluminum. You needed to change every year, and 60% distilled water was better. You still had to watch radiator for plugging, since it was just barely large enough. If the hot light came on it was too late. Adding a temp gage and paying attention was a better solution. If you kept on top of cooling system condition they would last a while. I really only know of one that never overheated, and it was still running at about 80K miles and not burning oil. There were some steel sleeves that you could put in when you rebuilt one. You had to change pistons, oe was iron plated. You still had [censored] carburetor, [censored] transmissions, weak rear end and skinny tires, but you did not have to check the gas and add oil anymore. It was fixed until it rusted out, which did not take long. The chevette was a better car.
Vegas were made to put V8 into them just because. I had friends with Vegas back in the day and they were as bad a every bad thing said about them.
I had a 1974 Vega GT (4-speed manual) and never had any problems with it. Had over 80k miles on it when I got rid of it. Always ran GTX 20W-50 in it and didn't burn any major oil. Engine was 2300 cc and OHC if I recall corectly.
The radiator was tiny, no wonder they had over heating problems. I think I ran a cooler T-stat and had a different fan to pull more air at idle. Put a header and exhaust, and foam air cleaner and re-jetted the carb. Thing would hit 125 on the top end.
The radiator was tiny, no wonder they had over heating problems. I think I ran a cooler T-stat and had a different fan to pull more air at idle. Put a header and exhaust, and foam air cleaner and re-jetted the carb. Thing would hit 125 on the top end.
Originally Posted by oil_film_movies
Also Ford has expanded PTWA to some ecoboost and 5L V8.
Yep, the 2018+ Gen 3 Coyote V8 has the PTWA coated cylinders - it's also DI and PFI combo fuel injection. As a result of the PTWA, the displacement of the 5.0 is actually slightly over 5.0L now instead of slightly under like the 2011-2017 Coyote.
Also Ford has expanded PTWA to some ecoboost and 5L V8.
Yep, the 2018+ Gen 3 Coyote V8 has the PTWA coated cylinders - it's also DI and PFI combo fuel injection. As a result of the PTWA, the displacement of the 5.0 is actually slightly over 5.0L now instead of slightly under like the 2011-2017 Coyote.
Originally Posted by ZeeOSix
I had a 1974 Vega GT ... Engine was 2300 cc and OHC if I recall corectly. ...
That's correct. Believe GM had fixed the problems with cylinder walls by '74, but that was too late to save the model's reputation.
I had a 1974 Vega GT ... Engine was 2300 cc and OHC if I recall corectly. ...
That's correct. Believe GM had fixed the problems with cylinder walls by '74, but that was too late to save the model's reputation.
For the time period, the Vega was a decent body, the engine was terrible if you had the standard engine. Friend in high school had a Cosworth twin cam Vega. Ran pretty good, handled really well.
My sister had a brand new 71 Vega. Lemon yellow no-less. Apropos! Good Heavens, what a piece of junk. It was OK the first year -or maybe 18 months but, it went downhill fast. The first year, She, her boyfriend, me and my other sister took a 150 mile weekend trip. I was sitting in the back and the highway speeds back in Illinois then were 70 MPH. I seriously thought that thing was going to fly apart. When we arrived, I crawled out of the back seat, got on my hands & knees and kissed the good Earth beneath me. Anyhow, that car only lasted 4 years or so. The body was getting perforation rust, the front end was coming apart, door locks and window cranks were breaking every few months. It took 30 minutes of coaxing to start in the winter mornings... the list goes on. The death blow was when it over-heated. I replaced the cracked exhaust manifold but a week later, anti-freeze started leaking near the intake manifold. -Game over!
I had a friend with one. I don't remember the year but it burned oil badly. One day he hit a tire and wheel on I-5 that tore the oil pan off and blew the engine.
He got a rebuild from a local rebuilder warehouse. As they were transporting it on the loading dock they lost it and it fell off the dock and cracked the block badly. Luckily for him, they had several in stock since it was a high demand unit.
The new one did run better, it had iron liners. The whole car was troublesome and he ditched it.
He got a rebuild from a local rebuilder warehouse. As they were transporting it on the loading dock they lost it and it fell off the dock and cracked the block badly. Luckily for him, they had several in stock since it was a high demand unit.
The new one did run better, it had iron liners. The whole car was troublesome and he ditched it.
Originally Posted by Silk
There is a difference in alloy bores as in Briggs & Stratton, and nikasil type coatings. On a 2 stroke motorcycle you just replace the piston,even if it has siezed, they just need a clean up. On my BMW motorcycle they run forever....if they start to burn oil, it needs valve guides.
The piston-bore clearance does increase over time - say, 100-150 hrs. They say you can't hone Nikasil...I know a guy who says you can if you know what you're doing.
I've had a couple of 2-stroke dirt bike jugs stripped and re-plated. There are a few outfits that do this here in the USA - one was Langcourt, in Alabama. They went out of business, but they were a subsidiary of Langcourt out of the UK. Another I used was Millennium Technologies. Looks like they're still in business:
https://www.millennium-tech.net/
You send them your piston (or, buy one from them) and they size the bore to the piston according to OEM P-B clearance specs. Usually a few thousandths of an inch.
There is a difference in alloy bores as in Briggs & Stratton, and nikasil type coatings. On a 2 stroke motorcycle you just replace the piston,even if it has siezed, they just need a clean up. On my BMW motorcycle they run forever....if they start to burn oil, it needs valve guides.
The piston-bore clearance does increase over time - say, 100-150 hrs. They say you can't hone Nikasil...I know a guy who says you can if you know what you're doing.
I've had a couple of 2-stroke dirt bike jugs stripped and re-plated. There are a few outfits that do this here in the USA - one was Langcourt, in Alabama. They went out of business, but they were a subsidiary of Langcourt out of the UK. Another I used was Millennium Technologies. Looks like they're still in business:
https://www.millennium-tech.net/
You send them your piston (or, buy one from them) and they size the bore to the piston according to OEM P-B clearance specs. Usually a few thousandths of an inch.
You can use a glaze busting ball hone to clean them up, you can't do that on a 2 stroke, so I just use some 400 wet & dry in the parts washer to clean them up.
bookmarking this so i can go through it later.
is there a dumbed down version of this article?
is there a dumbed down version of this article?
The original Vega 4 cylinder was supposed to get a revolutionary new ceramic cylinder lining. GM worked on that ceramic lining for years and finally gave up. I don't think they ever got the rings to seat.
Originally Posted by ka9mnx
The original Vega 4 cylinder was supposed to get a revolutionary new ceramic cylinder lining. GM worked on that ceramic lining for years and finally gave up. I don't think they ever got the rings to seat.
So Briggs & Stratton did a better job with their aluminum bore engines than Chevy getting the rings to seat
.
Whimsey
The original Vega 4 cylinder was supposed to get a revolutionary new ceramic cylinder lining. GM worked on that ceramic lining for years and finally gave up. I don't think they ever got the rings to seat.
So Briggs & Stratton did a better job with their aluminum bore engines than Chevy getting the rings to seat
Whimsey
Originally Posted by ka9mnx
The original Vega 4 cylinder was supposed to get a revolutionary new ceramic cylinder lining. GM worked on that ceramic lining for years and finally gave up. I don't think they ever got the rings to seat.
Well first off it wasn't a ceramic coating, in fact it wasn't a coating at all. It was similar to Alusil where processing of the bores exposed silicon particles already in the alloy. Any issues they had in properly etching the surface was already corrected by the time the Vega was being sold. Every problem the Vega had with engine block metallurgy was related to overheating.
The original Vega 4 cylinder was supposed to get a revolutionary new ceramic cylinder lining. GM worked on that ceramic lining for years and finally gave up. I don't think they ever got the rings to seat.
Well first off it wasn't a ceramic coating, in fact it wasn't a coating at all. It was similar to Alusil where processing of the bores exposed silicon particles already in the alloy. Any issues they had in properly etching the surface was already corrected by the time the Vega was being sold. Every problem the Vega had with engine block metallurgy was related to overheating.
I read it was an actual ceramic cylinder liner fitted to an iron block.
Originally Posted by ka9mnx
I read it was an actual ceramic cylinder liner fitted to an iron block.
Sorry I misread coating for liner. No, it wasn't a liner. It wasn't anything added to the block, it was a process for exposing material already present in the alloy much like Alusil. Processes like Nikasil that was initially used in my old M60 engine are something that's added later.
I read it was an actual ceramic cylinder liner fitted to an iron block.
Sorry I misread coating for liner. No, it wasn't a liner. It wasn't anything added to the block, it was a process for exposing material already present in the alloy much like Alusil. Processes like Nikasil that was initially used in my old M60 engine are something that's added later.
Originally Posted by ragtoplvr
I know a woman with in excess of 400K on an aluminum cylinder BMW motorcycle
I'm more in awe at a motorcycle with 400K miles on it tbh
I know a woman with in excess of 400K on an aluminum cylinder BMW motorcycle
I'm more in awe at a motorcycle with 400K miles on it tbh
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