[rustbucket]

I wasn't planning on plating anything. That was just the service they offered when they quoted the price. I only asked them because it seemed outrageous. I'm expecting $1000 or so per cylinder, and I see $50. As for it being cheap, well I know you get what you pay for. If it was going into my car, it wouldn't be based on price, but quality.

I was under the impression that Nickies were more than a coated cast iron cylinder. Might be wrong on that, I mostly skimmed Charles' site, as I don't have a need for them. But from your response Jake, it seems that was at the least how they started. I'm not trying to re-engineer the wheel here, I was just wondering if this plating (niksail over cast iron) was viable for larger air cooled engines (once again,thinking Nickies were more than Niksail/iron), or any size engine, although it appears to work okay for 2 strokes (I'm familiar with the differences in fuels). It seems to me that putting anything as a coating over the iron would limit heat dispersion. However, I'm basing that on experience with powder coating, not metallurgy. So, I wouldn't see any benefit to it, hence the question. If that is the basic design of a Nickies cylinder though, I guess I'll have to do some research on metallurgy (and disregard my ignorance).