Nickel Lined Two Stroke Cylinder?

[Wizard29]

A distant friend of mine has a 98 Honda 250 two stroke motorcycle (CR250, I'd imagine) and needs to rebuild the engine.
He says it has a nickel lined cylinder and nobody will hone it for him. He found one guy who said he can bore the cylinder, but that would take the nickel off and he doesn't recommend it. Apparently, somebody else advised him to have the cylinder re-sleeved.
Anybody heard of these nickel lined cylinder deals and know about them?

[wsuwrhr]

Sleeve, rebore and replate,, or get a new cylinder
Three choices.
I can do either for you.
Nicasil is pretty expensive, about a $100 to have it replated.
A new cylinder is about 300.
Brian
A distant friend of mine has a 98 Honda 250 two stroke motorcycle (CR250, I'd imagine) and needs to rebuild the engine.
He says it has a nickel lined cylinder and nobody will hone it for him. He found one guy who said he can bore the cylinder, but that would take the nickel off and he doesn't recommend it. Apparently, somebody else advised him to have the cylinder re-sleeved.
Anybody heard of these nickel lined cylinder deals and know about them?

[Devilman]

A distant friend of mine has a 98 Honda 250 two stroke motorcycle (CR250, I'd imagine) and needs to rebuild the engine.
He says it has a nickel lined cylinder and nobody will hone it for him. He found one guy who said he can bore the cylinder, but that would take the nickel off and he doesn't recommend it. Apparently, somebody else advised him to have the cylinder re-sleeved.
Anybody heard of these nickel lined cylinder deals and know about them?
I was always under the impression that the nickel lined cylinder was made so it wouldn't have to be messed with. When it came time for a new top end, just new piston/ring kit & get after it. My younger brother had an '87 Tecate fourwheeler (Kawasaki), it had that same setup. For some reason "nikisil"(sp?) comes to mind. He sent the jug off to Wiseco, they removed the nickel business & replaced it with a boreable sleeve. Thats been some years back though....

[Tom Brown]

The coating is probably a mixture of nickel and silicone. It was developed by Mahle and called Nickesil.
It may not need to be honed if you're just doing a ring-job. If it's not peeling and there isn't much of a ridge, I wouldn't hone.
If it needs work, you may be able to put a steel sleeve in the engine and run rings designed for steel. If you want to fix the Nickesil finish, you need to fix the bore, perhaps with an aluminum sleeve, re-plate, and then re-hone back to the specified dimension.
One more thing... honing Nickesil is not the same as honing steel. You need a much finer hone.

[Jbb]

The coating is probably a mixture of nickel, testosterone, and silicone. It was developed by Larry Flynt and called Hustler...:)
:p

[wsuwrhr]

Yea exactly what he said.
except specifically, if you want a bigger bore with nikasil, all you have to do rebore bigger and have it replated and walla....bigger nikasil bore.
Nikasil takes forever for a turnaround.
It makes more power than a steel sleeve though...less surface tension.
Most people opt to put a steel sleeve in place, or buy a new cylinder.
The coating is probably a mixture of nickel and silicone. It was developed by Mahle and called Nickesil.
It may not need to be honed if you're just doing a ring-job. If it's not peeling and there isn't much of a ridge, I wouldn't hone.
If it needs work, you may be able to put a steel sleeve in the engine and run rings designed for steel. If you want to fix the Nickesil finish, you need to fix the bore, perhaps with an aluminum sleeve, re-plate, and then re-hone back to the specified dimension.
One more thing... honing Nickesil is not the same as honing steel. You need a much finer hone.

[76ANTHONY]

got the same thing in my bike and they told me not to touch it, just throw in a new piston and go....worked so far...:D

[wsuwrhr]

got the same thing in my bike and they told me not to touch it, just throw in a new piston and go....worked so far...:D
Exactly, as long as it isn't damaged.

[wsuwrhr]

Cross hatch is the term
Whenever we re-do our top ends on our dirt bikes (usually at least one a season, there are 4 in our family all nickasil(sp) lined) as long as it isnt scored or damaged we will just run a quick ball hone through it just to the good diagonal hashes (I cant think of whatelse to call that pattern) on it and slap it back together. A hone takes off such little material that its not really a problem. A real aggressive bar hone, however, may be a different story.

[DMOORE]

I've had a number of Nikisil cylinders recoated over the years.( RGV's mostly). There are only 2 or 3 places in the US that do this. Pick up a Road Racing World if you can't find them. Usually a 3 week turn around. Like others have said, if it wasn't a catastaphic failure , and actually damaged the coating, simply run a ball hone through ,and you'll be good-to-go. It's a great coating and very hard(Porsche uses it on the 911) but a pain if damaged.
Darrell.

[Cs19]

I used to send all my stuff out for a re plate to RPM motorsports, I want to say they were in San bernardino. They built full tilt motocross racing engines and did a nice job, this was back when 2 strokes were popular, now its all thumpers so there probably is no advertising in the bike mags.
I always liked the nikasil over a sleeve but if yor not racing just get ahold of LA Sleeve and they should be able to dial you in.

[wsuwrhr]

I've had a number of Nikisil cylinders recoated over the years.( RGV's mostly). There are only 2 or 3 places in the US that do this. Pick up a Road Racing World if you can't find them. Usually a 3 week turn around. Like others have said, if it wasn't a catastaphic failure , and actually damaged the coating, simply run a ball hone through ,and you'll be good-to-go. It's a great coating and very hard(Porsche uses it on the 911) but a pain if damaged.
Darrell.
The turnaround sucks
Millenium Technologies does all of Racer's Edge Stuff
Brian

[Boa1277]

Here the deal call LA Sleeve and just send your cylinder to them. They will repress a new sleeve in and you will be ready to go. It will cost you about 150 bucks plus the new top end.(which you will buy with the Nicasil cylinder also) You can go OEM or up to 30 over. I recomend OEM and then you can get 3 top ends re bores out of the steel sleeve. Nicasil is what the factorys use so they can sell you whole new cylinders instead of slight boring and new piston and rings. Nicasil does run a little cooler and you are supposed to get a little more power, but I doubt very seriously if you will be able to tell...Unless you are riding on a national level you will not care. Many many people will tell you Nicasil is nice for doing a topend if there is no damage the problem is when there is damage you cannot just spend 30 bucks and have it bored out and buy the matching topend for the same price as the stock OEM. I just did this on my kids practice bike, I went ahead and had the original cylinder re-sleeved, and I went out and purchased a new cylinder, that way I am covered. (then again my kid is racing on a national level, Ponca is coming up)