Biral Cylinders- anyone using them?, Biral Cylinders, good or bad? Options

[lonewolfe]

I’m looking for real-life feedback in Biral Cylinders. If you’re using them or have used them what’s been your experience? It’s stated that they offer a 20% increase in cooling. That’s substantial enough to inquire more about them. This would be for a hot spirited street car. Either 2056 or a 2270cc engine.

[iankarr]

@mcmark and @mark henry I'm sure will have an experienced opinion.

[914Sixer]

Got them on my 2056. Have yet to run engine. Did thread on them 3 years or so back.

[Mark Henry]

Many moons ago LN did a bunch of birals, but found the cost for a set of done to their standard to be only a couple of Benjamins less than Nickies. The issue is casting, the two metals have way different expansion rates. Poorly made this causes the alunimum to separate from the iron, thus creating a hotspot(s).
On top of this they found the increase in cooling to be marginal at best over a bored out T4 iron cylinder and no competition to the aluminum cylinder.

This is basically the same thing Porsche found with the 911 engine. As the HP #'s went up they tried birals (à la 356), but within a relatively short period had to introduce alunimum cylinders.

Are the T4 birals available any good? Hard to say, honestly I haven't used them or heard of anyone with enough miles on them to give a honest verdict. Made in China, AA had quality issues at first, but I think they're getting better at QC.

On a 2270 or 2056, I'd spend the extra coin on better valve train, heads, balancing, etc. I personally don't think Nickies are warranted on T4 till you get into stroker performance engines or higher RPM for racing. The 2270/2.3 96mm is a goldilocks zone where both iron and Nickies work well, but you do definitely run cooler head temps with Nickies.
BTW I'm a LN dealer. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[McMark]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)

I've never used Biral. I read LNEngineerings review/perspective on the manufacturing process and what they had to say made a lot of sense. To make Biral work you need to ensure an extremely high level of contact between the aluminum and steel. Computer CPUs and coolers use a thermal paste to ensure 100% contact between the heat source and the cooling medium. While steel and iron can be 'attached' to each other, the time/expense/effort to do so effectively would push the price of Biral above Nickasil -- which is exactly what LN found. It simply wasn't cost effective to pursue.

So with that perspective, I suspect the available Biral cylinders to perform below what promised/expected and I don't see it being worth the risk/expense to explore.

[Bleyseng]

I just installed a set from AA 96's for fun. I know two other guys that have been using them for several years in bus's so they do work.
They are slightly bigger so you have to modify the tin under the cylinders to make it work.
I will be firing up my 2056 in the 914 maybe next week. Quality seemed really good.

[Dominic]

I have a set of LN 96mm birals on my 2270, no issues that I can tell. But I'm using an upright 914 DTM shroud so I don't have any cooling issues.

This is a picture taken years ago when I built the engine...