A couple of years ago I saw an Indian cylinder being supplied new with pattern Suzuki 190 piston for an almost unbelievable price, however, the dealer in question did not / does not have a good reputation. I could see that the photo on their website clearly showed a SIL 150 barrel being used for the conversion, which I was happy with as I know that they're hard and suitable for this conversion, so wanted to be sure that what I was looking at is what I'd receive, especially stressing that I didn't want the kit if some dodgy pattern barrel arrived. I also wanted to know a bit more about the head that they supply as it was cheap enough to make machining one of my existing 150 heads not worth the time and effort, providing theirs was worth fitting. You can guess where this is going...Warkton Tornado No.1 wrote: ↑Thu May 21, 2020 10:47 pmWhat do you think is a realistic maximum bore for the small block cylinders?
The reason that I ask is that as the result of a cock-up, I received a couple of pistons of the wrong diameter for a project.
They are 65 mm diameter, cast alloy, 18 mm wrist pin (I've never had a problem with bushes or caps BTW) & are 38 mm compression height. They have one ring supplied but there's room to add another ring groove if it was a concern.
I've dug them out because a mate is going down the route of an Indian 175 barrel (I told him not to!) & the piston he will get could be fit only for the bin. Along with the barrel, probably.
Either the next day or following, the parcel arrived and was well package... good service so far. I then pulled out the head, which was a horrible thin casting that looked like it would warp/blow in no time, with the wrong piston crown profile, lots of porous pockets open from the machining and would require machining to correct the profile error. In other words, not worth my time, needing the same amount of rework as starting with one of my 150 heads would have involved, based on a horribly cast thin design, and nothing like I was assured it would be!
The barrel was even worse! Not only was it not the SIL 150 cylinder from the photo but it was indeed a really badly cast aftermarket copy. It had a tiny inlet that didn't match any original barrel spec (size or position), inlet stud holes that were very shallow and had hardly any thread in them, tiny transfer feeds that were nothing like correct size/position at base gasket face, transfers that were small and badly cast through their length, a thin flange type exhaust area (studs only going through this flange and likely to strip thread or break flange if you were to ground out), and... worst of all... the core diameter between the fins was less than a standard 150 cylinder, meaning that the bore wall must have been paper thin!!! TBH they had done well to machine it without breaking through!
I immediately phoned them to ask why they had sent me exactly the sort of item that I'd stated I didn't want and wouldn't place the order unless they could assure me that I'd get what the photo showed on their website; a converted SIL150 cylinder. Rather than say, "Sorry about that, return it and we'll refund you.", I had them trying to argue that the item was fit for purpose and there was no reason why they should refund me! I ended up speaking to the boss there and eventually he agreed to refund me once it was returned. I posted the kit back up to them, signed for, and then the problems trying to get my money back began. Weeks and many phone calls later, I managed to get my money back.
What a flipping waste of time, effort and money (postage not covered, trip to post office, etc)! Until this point I'd not had anything but good service from the shop in question but that had all changed under the new ownership. Needless to say, I've not shopped with them since.
Anyway, the point of this was to highlight that using an Indian 150 shouldn't be an issue if you're starting with a genuine SIL barrel, however, some of the backstreet cylinders being supplied by certain UK dealers are not up to the job and not worth the money, cheap as they are.
Adam
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