Cast bronze for cylinder liner?

[Mark Hockett]

I am thinking about building the Snow engine that is featured in HSM. I wanted to cast the cylinders in bronze with the internal water jackets rather than solder sleeves in. Will bronze work for a IC engine cylinder or would it need a CI sleeve. Or should I just build it as the print shows?
Thanks,

[topct]

I don't think that bronze would like the situation.

Without looking it up, would bronze take hard chroming? If so, that might be an option.

[JCHannum]

Bill Reichert has a couple of model IC engines with brass cylinders that run well. I have also seen a model IC engine that a fellow has with Viton piston rings that is a very good running engine.

A brass clinder with Viton rings would eliminate the wear potential that might exist in a brass cylinder with the more common cast iron rings.

[wierdscience]

There are all sorts of IC engines that run aluminum bores which work so why not cast bronze.It's not like your going to run it at Daytona

[neonman]

This subject is timely for me too. I'm prototyping an engine with castings I pour. I can do bronze, but not C.I.

So, what would y'all recommend for the piston if the cylinder was bronze?

Any opinions on rings made of delrin or polyethelene?

Oh, BTW, this is a slow running hit-n-miss engine.

neonman

[JCHannum]

I would not be averse to trying anything, but polyethylene or delrin might not hold up to the temps encountered. I would use aluminum for the piston.

The beauty of the Viton O rings is that they are good to 400*F and are water and oil resistant. Silicone O-rings are good to 450*, and might have less friction. They are also to size in common diameters for pistons, and don't require any fancy machining. It is difficult to make your own rings and get good compression with the smaller engines.

The fellow I saw using them had a small, Odds & Ends or Little Angel type engine he was experimenting with, trying to get as much miss as he could between hits. He also had installed ball and/or needle bearings on the rod & mains. It would coast for a good long time.