There are a few possible outcomes of what could have happened to your friends set of scat birals, all related to the differing coefficients of expansion between the iron liner and aluminum cooling fins. Porsche had issues with the aluminum separating / falling off from the cylinders in high load / extended load situations. Primarily heat soak is your worse enemy. If the cylinder gets too hot, it just gets hotter, and hotter. You get the point. This is a point I've debated with the greatest minds in the 356/912 arena. The conclusion we have come to, is for a stock, or slightly hotter than stock application, birals are great, as they will provide better cooling, head sealing, and generally, longer cylinder life than a comparable cast iron cylinder. On a personal note, I would say to take advantage of the longer cylinder and add some more stroke. As long as the birals hold together (a big IF), they should be able to cool about 180 horses reliably (again from testing data from our own version of birals). A good cooling system will help greatly, say a DTM, to keep the aluminum in it's place!
Charles Navarro
LN Engineering
http://www.LNengineering.com
Aircooled Precision Performance
August 10th 2004, 09:53
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