Amazing Facts About The Nickasil Cylinder Plating Used In Porsche

High performance and long life paired together are a rare combination, especially when hinting to performance air-cooled Porsche engines. It is conventional, even with the high-powered 911 cooling systems, and high-performance engines that run too hot. As a result of the high operating temperature, there is a thermally overloaded engine that has cylinders against the head and has a significantly shorter life span than stock displacement engines. Here Nikies cylinders work to reduce cylinder head and oil temperatures, while OEM pallets provide greater durability than Nikasil plated cylinders.

How nickies are different from a factory Porsche cast-aluminum nikasil cylinder?

There are three varieties of aluminum cylinders typically found in air-cooled engines. First biral cylinders, that work as cast-iron cylinders, then there were early aluminum cylinders, utilized for chromal plating, typically identified by its dimpled bores. Later on, Porsche turned to Mahle's Nikasil plating and Kolbenshmidt's Alusil. Although they both are aluminum, that's where the comparison with Nickies ends.

 Why no provisions for sealing rings, head gaskets on nickies cylinders for Porsche applications had them?

 Although factories of Porsche Mahle Nikasil cylinders have provisions for head gaskets and sealing rings that Nikkies cylinder does not have. In the failure analysis of the cylinder, it was found that the sealing ring grooves cut across the sealing surface of the cylinder at the head.

How does the plating used on nickies cylinders differ from mahle's nikasil used on factory Porsche cylinders?

Historically, the first way to allow the use of solid aluminum cylinders was the chromal developed by Mahle that used hard chrome on the bore of the cylinder. Many aircraft have used it for years. The major problem with this plating is that it is fast - it is satisfactory in a low-performance, light-duty, low-rpm aircraft engine, but these chrome platings do not fare so well in high-rpm turning engines.

 

Similar to wear characteristics for cast iron, Porsche used a thin flame-coated "feral" coating. Although it is not needless to say that this was an unsatisfactory solution, that ultimately led to Mahle's development of Nikasil. So to this day, high-end Porsche engines use this exhaust plating process. Nickel's only pure cooling allows the elimination of cast iron, rather it is harder and more oleophilic than cast iron.