Any opinions on the wildcat ultra mineralli?

[SirLurksAlot]

I want to know who sells pistons for 2t engines made from steel/iron... Or anything other than aluminum or ceramic, for that matter. Iron liners with aluminum pistons was the defacto standard for high-performance 2t for many many years, afterall

 

[GW's Motorized]

I want to know who sells pistons for 2t engines made from steel/iron... Or anything other than aluminum or ceramic, for that matter. Iron liners with aluminum pistons was the defacto standard for high-performance 2t for many many years, afterall

My ts125 engine has a cast iron sleeve and an aluminum piston

 

[SirLurksAlot]

Exactly. As did my tz750 and tz350 along with every other 2 stroke I've ever owned or heard of, over the past ~6 decades

 

[Wrench]

Sometimes people read or see stuff on the internet and just assume it's true without researching the facts
Then giving advice to others that incorrect
"Apparently" that's what happened in post # 39

 

[Deleted Member 4613]

Well you know there's a ton of soft seizing vids on the net regarding
aluminum pistons and iron cylinders of 2 strokes. How is a user
to tell if the motor has the right clearances to avoid seizing?
Obviously for a racing engine where rpms
approach 11,000, the optimum is an aluminum piston
matched to an aluminum cylinder. There's so much mix
matching of so-called "hybrid" engines, one wonders if
the users even know about clearances and/or what the
right clearance should be for a particular engine. If you buy the
Minarelli kit from California Motorbikes, you can't
even ask him about clearances because he doesn't
answer emails. So you may be stuck. If it was me, I
would only buy the engine if I saw a solid test
video, one I could trust, or someone has verified that
it comes with an aluminum piston matched to an
aluminum cylinder. Remember, you're buying
from a Chinese source, not a brand name.

 

[Deleted Member 4613]

OK, here's someone who purchased the Wildcat Minarelli engine
and found defects (bad piston), so he did the wise thing and purchased
the Athena aluminum cylinder and aluminum piston kit. He also
bought a different head, commenting that the supplied head
would not be good enough for high rpm.
The California engine comes with an iron cylinder and
aluminum piston. It looks like he built the engine with
the California parts. Hard to understand the way he talks.
Anyone planning to build a racing engine really
should plan on purchasing the Athena
kit to be safe. Overall, this kit looks like you get what you pay for.
WATCH PART 2, WHERE HE CRASHES IN THE SNOW - IT'S FUNNY.

 

[GW's Motorized]

Matching aluminum pistons to aluminum cylinders isn't a bad idea, but if your budget only allows for a cast iron cylinder then it's simply about clearances. The best part about a cast iron cylinder is you can run a fine grit hone through it and check all the way down the bore to make sure it has the same clearance.

 

[Deleted Member 4613]

Well it depends what the goal is. For a pure racing engine, you want the
matching aluminum cylinder and piston. And, of course, other defects in
the cylinder and piston can't be ignored. Parts have to be made to
exacting specs from the best materials. Apparently, the current California
Motorbike Minarelli engine is wanting in its stock form, as the
user in the video found out.