my 800 had Nikasil coating....
what is that stuff exactly??? I assumed it was some type of hardened nickel plating??
Nikasil is a trademarked
electrodeposited oleophilic nickel matrix
Silicon Carbide coating for engine components, mainly
piston engine cylinder liners. It was introduced by Mahle in 1967, initially developed to allow
rotary engine apex seals (
NSU Ro80 and
C111) to work directly against the
aluminum housing. This coating allowed aluminium
cylinders and
pistons to work directly against each other with low wear and
friction. Unlike other methods, including
cast iron cylinder liners, Nikasil allowed very large cylinder bores with tight
tolerances and thus allowed existing engine designs to be expanded easily, the aluminium cylinders also gave a much better
heat conductivity than cast iron liners which is an important factor for a high output engine. The coating was further developed by US Chrome Corporation in the USA in the early 1990s (under the trade name of "Nicom") as a replacement for hard-chrome plated cylinder bores for Mecury Marine Racing, Kohler Engines, and as a repair replacement for factory-chromed snowmobiles, dirt bikes, ATVs, watercraft and automotive V8 liners/bores.
Porsche started using this on the 1970
917 race car, and later on the 1973
911 RS. Porsche also used it on production cars, but for a short time switched to
Alusil due to cost savings for their base
911. Nikasil cylinders were always used for the
911 Turbo and RS models. Nikasil coated aluminum cylinders allowed Porsche to build
air-cooled engines that had the highest
specific output of any engine of their time. Nikasil is still used in today's 911s with great success.
Nikasil was very popular in the 1990s. It was used by companies such as
BMW,
Ferrari and
Jaguar Cars in their new engine families. However, the
sulfur found in much of the world's low quality gasoline caused some Nikasil cylinders to break down over time
[1], causing costly engine failures.
Nikasil or similar coatings under other trademarks are also still widely used in racing engines, including those used in
Formula One and
ChampCar. Suzuki currently uses a race-proven nickel phosphorus-silicon-carbide proprietary coating trademarked SCEM (Suzuki Composite Electro-chemical Material) to maximize cylinder size and improve heat dissipation, e.g., on the engine of the
Suzuki_TL1000S and
Suzuki DL650 V-Strom and
Hayabusa motorcycles
[1].
