Excellence Mag December 08: Outstanding M96 engine article

[Jake Raby]

The methods used to lock the Nickies cylinders in place are proprietary and the biggest trade secret with what we are doing... This is LN's procedure and I have worked with them for over a decade, but they won't even tell me.

I can tell you that the old cylinders must be removed through an extensive CNC boring procedure that takes hours and about 300.00 worth of cutting tools are wasted per block to do the job! Using the CNC every block is done the same for excellent repeatability.

This is why the procedure costs as much as it does, but also why it works so damn well.

These aspects of the program is what make us capable of rebuilding blocks that have experienced a D chunk failure, pretty much no matter how bad the failure may be.

[Lil bastard]

I was certain that the old liners were bored out... didn't want to steal Jack's thunder. CNC is nice, but it could be done conventionally as well, though with some greater variance. There have been other cars where the liners were a negative fit (block had to be heated and 'expanded' to accept them) and these also needed to be bored for replacement.

One question about porting the bottom of the liners though. I can see where it would work well on the 356 air-cooled motor, but aren't the cylinders on the M96 water-jacketed? I believe thay are. That in itself could pose more difficulty.