Yeah, I'm just not anxious to have a nikasil jug. I've had a couple of very expensive bad experiences with nikasil in BMW's. It's kinda like if you've ever had near-death food poisoning, you're not real anxious to try the food again that put you on death's door. So, I've been searching for chrome, since my old Stihl saws with chrome jugs have been "bullet-proof".
FWIW: My experience and knowledge wrt nikasil is based on engine failures in BMW's that used nikasil plated/lined cylinder bores. BMW lost millions of $ and large numbers of faithful customers when their nikasil engines (M60 V-8 and M52 L-6) failed very early (30K miles). BMW has attributed the failure of the nikasil engines to fuel quality. They assert that all of their engine reliabilty/performance testing was conducted using western Euro petrol, and the nikasil engine failures were confined to the US and the UK. Both the US and UK allegedly have (or had) "high sulfur content" gasoline, whereas western Europe has (for the most part) what is designated "Ultra Low Sulfur content" (ULS) gasoline. Many angry owners of luxury class BMW's later, BMW abandoned nikasil, and adopted "Alusil" (AlSi) for the V-8's, and cast iron liners for the L-6's. So, BMW's claim was that all the nikasil engine failures were due to high sulfur content gas (even the highest quatity gas in the US and UK), and was not their fault....although no engine-development tests were performed by them using fuel from the markets for which the cars were destined.
I have a nikasil-engine V-8 which at 30K miles developed a "lope" during idle that now (at 50K miles) has all the feel of a dragster with a super-radical cam...more what you'd expect of a hot ride at the start line of a drag strip, than a 4-dr family sedan at a stop light. Doesn't really aggravate the **** out of me, but tends to irritate (scare) some "domesticated" passengers.
I have one L-6 that has 140K miles that runs like it's brand new, but it was produced in the US, and has a cast iron block. Only the L-6 engines for Euro and UK were aluminum with nikasil'd cylinders.
Now, maybe the BMW failures weren't at all a result of JUST the sulfur content of the gas, but JUST MAYBE also a result of BMW's nikasil'ing process. Of course, to have admitted that, their financial losses could have been MUCH higher. Other Euro auto manufacturers don't seem to have had a problem with their nikasil engines (Porsche flat six's, for example).
But, if taking BMW's claim as gospel (no mfg process problem, but just a high sulfur content fuel attacking the nikasil), a guy would want to use only ULS fuel if he had a nikasil'd engine. The UK now has converted to ULS gasoline. I have no clue where we in the US are in the sulfur content thing, nor do I know what the value of sulfur content is that qualifies for ULS gasoline. Guess I'll just keep driving my V-8 "loper" till it starts jumping off the pavement while stopped at lights. The budget just doesn't support the needed "fix".
If anyone's interested in more info on the "nikasil problem" as pertains to, and according to BMW, just google "BMW nikasil problem" or such. But, get ready for some pretty colorful language from very unhappy (OK, angry) former BMW owners.
Think I'll take my full-race-cam family sedan down to the Stihl parts store in the morning, to get a fuel tank gasket for my 020AVP.
opcorn:
