On Sep 11, 12:50*am, "Eisboch" wrote:
"Eisboch" wrote in message

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"Calif Bill" wrote in message
om...

I think the only "aluminum" cylinder was the Chevy Vega.

I think you are correct.

Aluminum can be hard anodized however, resulting in a surface hardness on
the Rockwell scale very close to steel.

Eisboch

Further on this: *(I looked it up because I was curious) .....

The original Vega block was a cast aluminum alloy, called 390, that was
16-18% Silicon, 4-4.5% Copper and the rest, pure aluminum.
It had no cast iron cylinder liners. *The Si content increased wear
resistance by allowing primary crystals of Si to precipitate out of the
aluminum.

This was all part of a general industry driven evolution of the use of
aluminum as new alloys were developed and applications were being tried.

It's also one of the reasons I've never been a big GM fan. * It seems like
they, more so than the other manufacturers, have a history of experimenting
with things, like metallurgy in this case, using their customer's cars as
the guinea pig test beds.

In the case of the Vega, it certainly was a flop.

Eisboch- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Yeah, they public becomes the lab rat, and yes, gm was/is guilty.

when they put the steel liners in that vega engine, they made a good
engine... finally.

But it lasted about a year or so and got ditched because the pubic was
sick of their crap.