"Well, I'm not dumb but I can't understand
Why she walk like a woman and talk like a man
Oh my Lola, lo lo lo lo Lola, lo lo lo lo Lola"
Whew, Frank, kinda scary thought for a Sunday morning.
Just the kinda thought that keeps a single guy drinking responsibly!
Never know what ya might drag home if you don't keep your wits about you...
Cast Iron vs Nikasil:
Lived with them both, in 4-strokes and 2 strokes. My Blasters are both actually, one with a KTM engine.
Anyone living with cast iron is counting the over-bores. Counting down until none are left. Always looking for the next size piston.
Last oversize is the end of life...
Cheap pistons, oil and air cleaner bring it all the sooner, as do bearing and ring failures, quickly wiping out overbore re-life chances.
Original Nikasil is thin, like our chrome flashing on our China Girls. It is what you get with any bought Nikasil cylinder.
Rebuilder Nikasil is layers of plating, tough as nails. Will stand surprising abuse, like blown piston skirts, but not bearing bits.
If you had a China Girl cylinder that was a wonder of porting power, a good Nikasil plating would keep it forever.
Good oil and air cleaner, you could throw a $9 piston in it and $30 of rings every 5 years or 20,000 miles.
No kidding.
Everything to a "T" and it still fails?
My paying job is to install complicated production machinery and get it to run as fast as possible, as long as possible.
All things have a life cycle, all failures have a reason. Most are predictable if you know the factors involved.
When things fail unexpectedly, there is a learning opportunity. Why?
If you are not honest with yourself about the reasons, you will never learn a thing, and will repeat the mistakes.
"Cheap Chinese metal" is a cop-out. Bolts strip or break because you overloaded them. Chrome comes off for a reason.
Everything to a "T" implies impeccable quality control as opposed to "assemble and hope".
Quality Control:
I did a 2 year college course on this topic, could talk at length about any minute detail, but in the end it gets down to a balance of quality vs cost. How much do you want to pay for? So when you build your own engine are you doing the quality control? The inspection? The blueprinting? The quality testing?
Did you:
Dial the crank in to check for run-out or misalignment?
Check for fit on the bearings and install them without putting the load across the rolling elements?
Check for proper bearing side loads and clearance after assembly?
Leak test the whole assembly with pressure to test sealing?
Do a plug chop to assure proper mixture?
Usually not, because most of us want that low $$$ value point but forget it comes with an increasing failure cost.
My thoughts for a Sunday morning...