A few years ago I talked to US Chrome about having some cylinders plated. It was cheaper to send them to EBS. EBS uses Millenium (sp) Technologies or at least that's what the boxes say on them.
-Chris

We also contract out to Millenium...there are only 2-3 shops out there that perform cylinder nakasil coating. As a licensed business we are able to pass along some savings to our customers...versus someone who goes direct and pays retail.

Crap. I stand corrected for asking such a frivolous question! Let me rephrase my original question:

Anyone got any idea what it costs to have cylinders electrolytically co-deposited with a two phase composition of silicon carbide and nickel? And, what is a good shop to get this done by?
Thanks!
Pat

If you are giong to use your old pistons, they should also be sent in. Or at least one of them (if they are w/in spec)so that the the bore can be determined.

Wrong again, but why believe me, I am only an aerospace engineer after all.

And even though the carbide in nikasil does increase the cylinder hardness, the primary reason it is there is for oil retention. Nickel plated cylinders long predate nikasil but they never gained wide use because of the problems related to cylinder lubrication. The embedded carbide corrected that problem as well as reducing cylinder wear.

Yeah, I always thought Porsche went with the Nikasil (or Alusil) in order to utilize fully aluminum barrels for clearance and equality of piston-cylinder expansion. The nickel has, if I recall, good high temp thermal properties, and the silicon carbide wear characteristics were a bonus. We used to make parts for the arresting gear on F-4's out of one of the monels, Inconel-X, so it is pretty tough.

I'm looking at some P&C's which may need a recoat, so I'm trying to figure if it's worth it.

Any body know if Porsche exprianced similar failures to BMW with the nikasil? My 540 has the nikasil V8 but it is rumord that BMW replaced nearly half of the blocks under warranty to Alusil. I guess there was an issue with high sulpher in the fuel. Mine has 135K and still pulls like an animal but there are many on the BMW side who sware mine will fail sometime. WTF

BMW's problem was of their own making. A lot of porsches have run on high sulfur fuels without self destructing.

I figured as much. I wondred if it had anything to do with the air cooled cyclinders comming up to temp sooner than a water cooled engine. I also figured it had to do with poor manufactuing tolerances. I have not been impressed with BMW's engineering. Sure it makes 300hp and 330 ft tq but I have to re torque the oil pump bolts at every oil change. Lots of other lotttle problems that I never have with my 40 year old p-car.