Cylinder Liner - Nikasil or Steel Sleeve?

Hi Guys

As you know I'm working on a 750cc Husaberg conversion. I have stripped the donor/victim engine and measured all the bits up.

I am running a specially made 105mm piston, and a longer stroke. This means that I will have to bore the liner and pack the head up. I have a foundry and machine shop so what I was planning to do to solve this was to cast a one-piece liner and packer. (Imagen a Husaberg head gasket about half an inch thick made of aluminium cast on top of the liner, all in one-piece.)

I have looked at this and with a little case work it will be OK, I may have to remove the 3 O-ring grooves and seal another way!!

BUT - Another option occurred to me - I could make a steel liner. I don't need to plate it then and it can be thinner - requiring less case work.

So what do you think?

Has anyone run a steel liner in a Husaberg, how'd it go?

What do you think are the disadvantages, (and advantages if any)?

If you can support your opinions with reasons, don't just bash steel liners, I know the technology has been superseded - but is it PRACTICAL for this project????

Many thanks - I do really value the feed back on this site.

Best Regards

Ben Ballard
JBSracing

Hi Dale

Thanks for the input, again!

This confirms the feeling that I had that steel was probably the way to go.

I had thought about electrolytic corrosion and ways to help with that and plain old rusting - more in storage than use. But I hadn't thought about vibration induced cavitation erosion. Thanks for the link. I am thinking of expanding into the water jacket space by 1mm (radius) or so to thicken the wall and speed up the coolant flow. So that might help a bit. As I see it now, its a question of carful materials selection, looking at coolant additives, and possibly plating or other corrosion inhibition surface treatments.

Any one else want to put their oar in, I would value your opinions especially any experiences.

Thanks

Best Regards

Ben Ballard
JBSracing

Hi Dale

A direct quote from the FIM technical code 2005 for sidecars - A sidecar is " A Group B2 - Vehicles with three wheels, making two or three tracks on the ground in the direction of forward travel, with a permanently attached Sidecar forming a complete integral unit........"

Engine rules for Group B2 vehicles - "Over 350 cc and up to a maximum of 750 cc for 2-stroke engines or a maximum of 1000 cc for 4-stroke mono and bi-cylinder engines."

Very strick fuel regs no lead, no oxygenates, max octane 100 ...........5 pages. Naturally asperated only.

They are hard to image - www.sidecarcross.com - has photos etc. seing them jump like solos and clear table tops is spectacular (being on them is better though). If you've ever see the film Ben Hur its like the chariot race only with jumps.

As you can see a Husaberg even a bored 750cc Husaberg is well below the limit. Obviously none of the big manufacturers will touch a little and very specialist market like this. Two companies ZABEL and MTH have made two-strokes based on the Maico MX 500 and KTM MC 500 respectively. ZABEL is now out to 700cc (100 B x 89 S) and MTH to 650 (98 B x 87 S). These 2 have dominated since mid-1990's. Last season several teams ran KTM 525's with 450 barrels bored and stroked to 630cc. They were competitive against the two-strokes on their day and with luck. I hope that the 750cc Husaberg will be an improvement on this for next season.

However 1000cc is the limit and no existing motocross engine will go that big (I know I've looked at them all). So I designed an engine from a clean sheet, literally, only the starter motor and the rotor and stator are stock items. Its being made now, but won't be ready till 2006 so the Husaberg is something to ride this year.

Dale - If you would like to see a picture of my engine email me at [email protected]. You can see the piston and valves from it in my gallery. I don't want to tell the world yet it still being developed but you would be most welcome to see it.

Regards

Ben

The Highland is a fine engine but I have two problems with V twins.

1) As I mentioned the current crop of engines are single 2-strokes, it has been the same for 10 years or more. So the chassis have evolved to take them, I had trouble fitting a Husaberg to the current chassis, I had to alter the chassis and make a special 1 off cast rubber inlet boot and head flange. (Making a sidecar chassis is rather more complicated than a solo and I just don't have the time to produce one economically enough to get it accepted by the racing community.)

2) A company called EML made a chassis and a very powerful 2 cylinder 840cc 2-stroke in the mid-1980's. Through internal politics the other sidecar engine manufacturers managed to get the FIM to lower the limit to 750cc. This cost EML very dear and they struggled to stay around and are now all but gone.

I figure they can't rule for less than 1 cylinder (that would be a challenge) and if they reduce the cc limit I've covered my bases with the Husaberg.

Well yes wasp did have the market to itself from about 1975 to 1980ish. Wasp made chassis and engines for sidecars, and sold them complete they are the closest there has ever been to a true sidecar manufacturer. Now you buy your rolling chassis, engine, and suspension from different people.

In the early 1980's EML and other european manufacturers started to copy Wasp chassis design. The market moved to single 2-strokes and lighter bikes less power but better power to weight, away from the traditional heavy 4-strokes. The bikes now are faster than they ever have been and they jump pretty much every thing the solos do which the old sidecars just couldn't do. Wasp just didn't keep up with the technology and they made Chrome-Moly Brazed chassis, rather than lower grade MIG welded chassis. The MIG chassis hold together and are much cheaper than a brazed one so inevitably people bought them.

As for the wasp engine its twice as heavy as anything now in use, it probably makes the same top-end power but with much less pick-up.

Wasp is still around and will make you a chassis to order I think they also do quads now, but last time I visited their workshop about 6 or 7 years ago they had mostly industrial frames and fabrication jobs in the shop.

Has anyone tried to Nikasil plate 6061 aluminium? Did it stick, can you see any reason why it won't?

The reason I ask is that I am having Aluminium and Iron liners made for the 750 to try both out. The machine shop want to make the liners out of 6061 for its thermal properties, thought they do also have stock of 6063. When I spoke with the platers that I use they said that they recomend 6082, H30 and HT30 for liners and that they can't guarantee that Nikasil will stick to 6061. They told me some scare stories about plating flacking off during honing??

Thanks

Ben
JBSracing

FYI - I just edited this post because I found out that 6061 is exactly equivalent to HT30 which is a recognized and well know platable alloy.