Lesson Three

Cylinder Section
ATPL VIDEO
DISASSEMBLING VIDEO
ILUSTRATED PARTS CATLOGUE

1
Pistons

2
 Pistons
•The piston in a reciprocating engine is a cylindrical plunger that
moves up and down or reciprocates, inside the cylinder, and
converts the energy in the expanding gases into useful work.
•Pistons perform two primary functions;
 First, they draw fuel and air into a cylinder, compress the gases,
and purge (get rid of) burned exhaust gases from the cylinder;
 Second, they transmit the force produced by combustion to the
crankshaft.

3
Pistons

Fig; A piston .

4
 Piston Construction
• Most aircraft engine pistons are machined from aluminum
alloy forgings or casting. Aluminum alloys are used
because they are lightweight, have high heat
conductivity, and have excellent bearing characteristics.
• Ring grooves are then cut into a piston's outside surface to
hold a set of piston rings. As many as six ring grooves
may be machined around a piston.
• The portion of the piston between the ring grooves is
commonly referred to as a ring land.
5
 Piston Construction

• The piston's top surface is called the piston head (piston

crown) and is directly exposed to the heat of combustion.
• The piston pin boss is an enlarged area inside the piston
that provides additional bearing area for a piston pin
which passes through the piston pin boss to attach the
piston to a connecting rod.
• To help align a piston in a cylinder, the piston base is
extended to form the piston skirt.

6
 Piston Construction

Fig; A typical piston has ring grooves cut into its outside surface to support
piston rings. In addition, cooling fins are sometimes cast into the piston
interior to help dissipate heat, while the piston pin boss provides support for
the piston pin. 7
 Piston Construction
• On some pistons, cooling fins are cast into the underside of
the piston to provide for greater heat transfer to the engine
oil i.e. the inside of the head and walls have fins that enable
the lubricating oil in the crankcase to pick up some of the heat.

Figure. A half-sectioned
view of a typical aircraft
engine piston

8
 Piston Speed

•To appreciate the loads imposed on a piston and connecting

rod assembly, it is helpful to consider the speed at which the
piston must travel in the cylinder.
•To move at high speeds with a minimum of stress, the piston
must be as light as possible.
•If an engine operates at 2000 rpm, the piston will start and stop
4000 times in 1 minute (min), and if the piston has a 6-in [15.24-
cm] stroke, it may reach a velocity of more than 35 mph [56.32
km/h] at the end of the first quarter of crankshaft rotation and at
the beginning of the fourth quarter of rotation.
9
 Piston Temperature and Pressure
•The temperature inside the cylinder of an airplane engine may exceed 4000°F
[2204°C], and
•The pressure against the piston during operation may be as high as 500
pounds per square inch (psi) [3447.5 kilopascals (kPa)] or higher.
•Since aluminum alloys are light and strong and conduct the heat away
rapidly, they are generally used in piston construction.
•The heat in the piston is carried to the cylinder wall through the outside of the
piston and is transmitted to the engine oil in the crankcase through ribs or other
means on the inside of the piston head.
•Fins increase the strength of the piston and are more generally used than
other methods of cooling.

10
 Piston and Cylinder-Wall Clearance
• Piston rings are used as seals to prevent the loss of gases between the piston
and cylinder wall during all strokes.
It would be desirable to eliminate piston rings by making pistons large
enough to form a gastight seal with the cylinder wall, but in that case;
The friction between the piston and the cylinder wall would be too
great and
There would be no allowance for expansion and contraction of the
metals.
• The piston is actually made a few thousandths of an inch smaller than the
cylinder, and the rings are installed in the pistons to seal the space
between the piston and cylinder wall.
If the clearance between the piston and the cylinder wall became too
great, the piston could wobble, causing piston slap. 11
 Piston Classification
• Pistons are often classified according to their head design. The
most common types of head designs are the flat, recessed,
cupped, and domed.
• In addition, piston skirts can be the simple trunk type, the trunk
type that is relieved at the piston boss, and the slipper type which
is relieved along the piston base to reduce friction.

Figure. Most modern

aircraft engines use
flat-head pistons.
However, as an
aviation technician,
you should be
familiar with all
piston head designs.
12
 Piston Classification

•Recesses may be machined in the piston head to prevent

interference with the valves.
 Note that some pistons have the skirt cut out at the bottom to
clear the crankshaft counterweights.
 The horsepower ratings of engines of the same basic design are
changed merely by the use of different pistons.
 A domed piston increases the compression ratio and the brake
mean effective pressure (bmep) when the engine is operating at
a given rpm.
13
Piston Classification

Fig; Piston assembly

and types of pistons.

14
 Cam Ground Pistons
Cam-ground piston; A reciprocating engine piston that is not
round, but is ground so that its diameter parallel to the wrist pin is
slightly smaller than its diameter perpendicular to the pin.
• The mass of metal used in the wrist pin boss, the enlarged area
around the wrist pin hole expands when heated, and when the piston
is at its operating temperature, it is perfectly round.
Fig; Several engines now use cam
ground pistons to compensate for
the greater expansion parallel to
the piston boss during engine
operation.
The diameter of a cam ground
piston measures several
thousandths of an inch larger
perpendicular to the piston boss
than parallel to the piston boss.
15
 Piston Grooves
• As many as six grooves may be machined around the piston to
accommodate the compression rings and oil rings.
• Pistons may be equipped with six, five or four piston rings,
but many are equipped with only three rings as in the figure
below.

Fig; Machined rings around a piston.

16
 Piston Grooves
• For pistons with more than three rings, the compression rings are
installed in the three uppermost grooves; the oil control rings are
installed immediately above the piston pin.
• The piston is usually drilled at the oil control ring grooves to allow
surplus oil scraped from the cylinder walls by the oil control rings to
pass back into the crankcase.
• An oil scraper ring is installed at the base of the piston wall or skirt to
prevent excessive oil consumption. The portions of the piston walls that
lie between ring grooves are called the ring lands.
• In addition to acting as a guide for the piston head, the piston skirt
incorporates the piston-pin bosses. The piston-pin bosses are of heavy
construction to enable the heavy load on the piston head to be transferred to
the piston pin.
17
 Piston Pin (Wrist Pin)
• A piston pin joins the piston to the connecting rod. A typical piston pin is
machined in the form of a tube from a nickel-steel alloy forging that is case-
hardened.
• Piston pins are sometimes called wrist pins because of the similarity between
the relative motions of the piston and the connecting rod and that of the human
arm.
Piston pins may be stationary, semi floating, or full-floating. As their name
implies,
 Stationary piston pins are held tightly in place by a setscrew that prevents
movement.
 Semi floating piston pins, on the other hand, are retained stationary in the
connecting rod by a set clamp that engages a slot in the pin.
 Full-floating piston pins are free to rotate in both the connecting rod and piston-
pin bosses. They are used in most modern aircraft engines. 18
 Piston Pin (Wrist Pin)

Figure; Full-floating
wrist pins have
aluminum plugs in
their ends to prevent
scoring the cylinder
walls.

•Boss; An enlarged area in a casting or machined part. A boss, provides additional

strength to the part where holes for mounting or attaching parts are drilled. 19
 Piston Pin Retainers
• A piston pin must be held in place laterally to prevent it from rubbing and
scoring the cylinder walls. Three devices that are used to hold a piston
pin in place are circlets, spring rings, and metal plugs.
The more current practice is to install a plug of
relatively soft aluminum called a piston-pin
plug. Due to the plug's soft aluminum
construction and cylinder lubrication, the metal-
to-metal contact causes no damage to the
cylinder walls.
• Most wrist pins are installed with a push fit into the holes in the wrist pin
boss.
• Push fit;A fit between pieces in a mechanical assembly that is close
enough to require the parts to be pushed together. A push fit is looser
than a press fit. But closer than a free fit. 20
 Piston Rings
• Piston rings perform three functions in aircraft reciprocating
engines.
They prevent leakage of gas pressure from the combustion
chamber,
Reduce (prevent too much) oil seepage into the combustion
chamber, and
Transfer heat from the piston to the cylinder walls.
The rings fit into the piston grooves but
spring out to press against the cylinder
walls. When properly lubricated, piston rings
form an effective seal.

Fig; Machined rings around a piston

21
 Piston Ring Construction
• Most piston rings are made of high-grade gray cast iron because of its
ability to remain resilient when extremely hot. However, in some engines,
chrome-plated mild steel piston rings are used because of their ability to
withstand high temperatures.
• The seal between a piston ring and the cylinder wall requires there to be
enough wear between the ring and the wall to smooth the surfaces and
allow the rings to "seat."
• Piston rings used in cylinders with plain steel or nitrided walls can have
their wear faces chrome-plated to increase hardness and wear resistance.
• But piston rings used in chrome-plated cylinders must not be plated, since
chrome-plated rings in chrome-plated cylinders will not allow enough wear
for the rings to seat and produce the needed seal.
22
 Piston Ring Gap
• After a ring is made, it is ground to the desired cross-section and then
split so it can be slipped over a piston and into a ring groove. The
point where a piston ring is split is called the piston ring gap. The
gap can be a simple butt joint with flat faces, an angle joint with
angled faces, or a step joint. [Figure below]
• The end gap in piston rings is critical for engine performance. In the past
some of the ring-gap joints have been step-cut or angled to enhance the
sealing ability, but most modern rings have straight-cut ends. See
Figure above.
• Three things are critical about the
fit and condition of a piston ring:
Its end-gap clearance, its
tension, and its side clearance.

23
 Piston Ring Gap
• Since the piston rings expand when the engine reaches operating
temperature, the ring must have a specified clearance between the ring
gap faces.
 If the gap is too large, the two faces will not close up enough to provide
an adequate seal. On the other hand, an insufficient gap will result in the
ring faces binding against each other and the cylinder wall causing
cylinder wall scoring.
• When installing piston rings, the ring gaps must be staggered, or offset,
to ensure that they do not align with each other. This helps prevent
combustion chamber gases from flowing past the rings into the
crankcase.
• This blow-by, as it is often called, results in a loss of power and
increased oil consumption. If three piston rings are installed on one
piston, it is common practice to stagger the ring gaps 120 degrees from
each other. 24
 Piston Ring Gap
• Blow-by is evidenced by the emission of oil vapor and blue
smoke from the engine breather.
• This same indication may occur as a result of worn piston
rings; in this case, it is caused by oil entering and burning in the
combustion chamber, and a part of the combustion gases
blowing by the piston rings into the crankcase and out the
breather.
• The greatest wear in a reciprocating engine usually occurs
between the piston rings and the cylinder walls; excessive
emission of blue smoke from the exhaust or from the engine
breather indicates that repairs should be made.

25
 Piston Ring Gap
• Excessive side clearance will allow the rings to cock in their
grooves, subjecting the rings to considerable wear and possible
breakage.
• In order for piston rings to
seal against the cylinder wall,
the rings must press against
the cylinder wall snugly.
Furthermore, the rings must
exert equal pressure on the
entire cylinder wall as well as
provide a gas-tight fit against
the sides of the ring grooves.
Figure. Measurement of piston ring side clearance
26
 Types Of Aircraft Piston Rings
The rings are classified into two as
Compression rings and
Oil rings (oil control rings, and oil wiper (scraper) rings).
Figure;
 Compression rings, are installed in
the upper ring grooves and help
prevent the combustion gases from
escaping by a piston.
 Oil rings, on the other hand, are
installed near the middle and bottom
of a piston and control the amount of
oil applied to the cylinder wall. 27
 Compression Rings
• Compression rings prevent gas from escaping past the piston during
engine operation and are placed in the ring grooves immediately below
the piston head.
• The number of compression rings used on each piston is determined
by the type of engine and its design. However, most aircraft engines
typically use two or three compression rings on each piston.
• The cross section of a compression ring can be rectangular, wedge
shaped, or tapered.
Figure; Of the three different ring cross
sections, the tapered face presents the
narrowest bearing edge to the cylinder wall to
help reduce friction and hasten ring seating
but most compression rings are wedge
shaped.
28
 Oil Rings
• Oil rings control the amount of oil that is applied to the
cylinder walls as well as prevent oil from entering the
combustion chamber.
The two types of oil rings that are found on most engines
are;
Oil control rings and
Oil scraper rings.

Fig; Oil ring installations.

29
 Oil Control Rings

 Oil control rings are placed in the grooves immediately below

the compression rings. Pistons may have one or more oil
control rings and, depending on the type of piston, as many as
two rings can be installed in a single ring groove.
 The primary purpose of oil control rings is to regulate the
thickness of the oil film on the cylinder wall. To allow an oil
control ring to remove excess oil and return it to the crankcase,
small holes are drilled in the piston ring grooves, or ring lands.

30
 Oil Control Rings
• In addition, some pistons use ventilated-type oil control
rings which typically consist of two or more pieces with
small slots (corrugated expanders) machined around the
ring, Figure below. These slots allow excess oil to drain into
the ring groove so it can return to the crankcase.

Figure. A two-piece oil control ring with an

expander behind it controls the amount of
oil allowed to remain between the piston
and the cylinder wall. Excess oil drains
back into the crankcase through the holes
in the bottom of the ring groove.

31
 Oil Control Rings
 If too much oil enters the combustion chamber, the oil will burn and
leave a thick coating of carbon on the combustion chamber walls, the
piston head, the spark plugs, and the valves.
 If this carbon should enter the ring grooves or valve guides it can cause
the valves and piston rings to stick.
 Furthermore, carbon buildup can cause spark plug misfiring as well as
detonation, or excessive oil consumption.
 To help prevent this, an oil scraper ring is used to regulate the
amount of oil that pass on skirt and the cylinder wall. To allow the
surplus oil to return to the crankcase, holes are drilled in the bottom of
the oil control piston ring grooves or in the lands next to these grooves.
32
 Oil Scraper (Wiper) Ring
• An oil scraper ring, sometimes called an oil wiper ring, usually has a
beveled face and is installed in a ring groove at the bottom of the piston
skirt.
• The ring can be installed with the beveled edge away from the piston head or
in the reverse position, depending upon cylinder position and engine design.
• If the bevel is installed so that it faces the piston head, the ring pushes oil
downward toward the crankcase.
• On the other hand, in the reverse position the scraper ring retains surplus
oil above the ring on the upward piston stroke, and this oil is returned to
the crankcase by the oil control rings on the downward stroke.
• It is very important that these rings be installed in accordance with
manufacturer's instructions. [Figure below]
33
Oil Scraper (Wiper) Ring

Figure. An oil scraper ring installed with its

beveled edge away from the cylinder head
forces oil upward along the cylinder wall when
the piston moves upward, the ring serves as a
pump to keep up the flow of oil between the
piston and cylinder wall. However, if the beveled
edge is facing the cylinder head, the ring
scrapes oil downward to the crankcase when the
piston moves down.

34
Cylinders

35
 Cylinders
• The portion of the engine in which the power is developed is called the
cylinder.
• The cylinder provides a combustion chamber where the burning and
expansion of gases takes place to produce power.
• The cylinders receive the greatest amount of stress and are exposed to
the highest temperatures.
• Furthermore, a cylinder
houses the piston and
connecting rod assembly as
well as the valves and spark
plugs. [Figure below]
36
 Cylinders
• There are four major factors that need to be considered in the design and
construction of the cylinder assembly. It must:
Be strong enough to withstand the internal pressures developed during
engine operation.
Be constructed of a lightweight metal to keep down engine weight.
Have good heat-conducting properties for efficient cooling.
Be comparatively easy and inexpensive to manufacture, inspect, and
maintain.
• A modern air-cooled cylinder assembly consists of a high-strength steel
barrel and a cast-aluminum head fitted with valve seats, valve guides,
and threaded inserts for the spark plugs. There are also mounting flange,
skirt, cooling fins and rocker shaft bosses with bushings pressed into
them in which the rocker shafts ride. 37
 Cylinders
 Each cylinder is an assembly of two major parts: Cylinder head and
cylinder barrel. The majority of the cylinders used are constructed in this
manner using an aluminum head and a steel barrel.
 The three methods used for joining the cylinder barrel to the cylinder
head are
i. The threaded-joint method,
ii. The shrink-fit method, and
iii.The stud-and-nut joint method.
 The method most commonly employed for modern engines is the
threaded-joint method.
• The joint will be extremely tight and able to withstand combustion
pressures of up to 800 psi without leaking. 38
 Cylinders

Figure. A typical cylinder for an air-cooled horizontally opposed engine

39
 Cylinders
• On some of the earliest two- and four-cylinder horizontally opposed engines,
the cylinder barrels were cast as part of the crankcase halves. This required
the use of removable cylinder heads.
• However, on almost all modern engines, the individual cylinders are cast as a
component, separate from the crankcase, and the heads are permanently
attached during the manufacturing process.
To do this, the cylinder head is expanded through heating and then
screwed down onto a chilled cylinder barrel. A gas-tight joint results
when the head cools and contracts and the barrel warms up and expand.
• The cylinder assembly along with the piston assembly, connecting rods,
crankshaft, and crankcase constitute the power section of a reciprocating
engine.
40
 Cylinder Heads
• The cylinder head of an air cooled engine is generally made of aluminum
alloy because aluminum alloy is a good conductor of heat and its light
weight reduces the overall engine weight.
• One disadvantage of using aluminum alloys for cylinder heads is that the
coefficient of expansion of aluminum is considerably greater than that of
steel. This disadvantage is largely overcome through the method by which
the cylinder heads are attached to the cylinder barrels.
• Cylinder heads are forged or die-cast for greater strength. The interior shape
of the cylinder head may be flat, peaked, or semispherical.
• The inner shape of a cylinder head that is generally preferred is
semispherical shape. The semispherical shape is stronger than conventional
design and aids in a more rapid and thorough scavenging of the exhaust
gases. 41
 Cylinder Heads
• The cylinder used in the air cooled engine is the overhead valve type.
• The cylinder head acts as a lid on the cylinder barrel to provide an
enclosed chamber for combustion. In addition, cylinder heads contain
intake and exhaust valve ports, spark plugs, valve actuating
mechanisms, and also serve to conduct heat away from the cylinder
barrels.

Fig; Cylinder assembly

(Continental)

42
 Cylinder Head Components
• After the cylinder head is cast, the spark plug bushings, valve guides,
rocker arm bushings, and valve seats are installed in the cylinder head.
• Spark plug openings may be fitted with bronze or
steel bushings that are shrunk and screwed into
the openings. Stainless steel Heli-Coil spark
plug inserts are used in many engines currently
manufactured.
Figure; Spark plugs screw into Heli-Coil inserts that are used to
protect the threads in the soft cast-aluminum cylinder head (to
reinforce the threads in an aluminum casting)
• Special valve seats and guides are shrunk into the heads to prevent
this wear. Bronze or steel valve guides are usually shrunk or screwed
into drilled openings in the cylinder head to provide guides for the valve
stems. These are generally located at an angle to the center line of the
cylinder. 43
 Cylinder Head Components

• Most horizontally opposed engines actuate the valves with

pushrods and rocker arms. The rocker shaft bosses have
bronze bushings pressed into the holes in which the rocker
shafts ride.
• Cylinder heads of air cooled engines are usually cast or
forged. Aluminum alloy is used in the construction for a
number of reasons. It is well adapted for casting or for the
machining of deep, closely spaced fins, and it is more
resistant than most metals to the corrosive attack of tetraethyl
lead in gasoline.
• The greatest improvement in air cooling has resulted from
reducing the thickness of the fins and increasing their depth.
44
 Cylinder Head Components
• Since the exhaust valve region is typically the hottest part of
the internal surface, more fin area is provided around the
portion of the cylinder head that contains the exhaust valve.
• On the other hand, the intake portion of the cylinder head
typically has few cooling fins because the fuel/air mixture
cools this area sufficiently.
• To allow the fuel/air mixture to enter the cylinder as well as
let the exhaust gases exit, intake and exhaust ports are
machined into each cylinder head. The surfaces around
each of these ports are also machined to permit the
attachment of the intake and exhaust manifolds.
45
 Cylinder Head Components
• To provide an adequate seal, a synthetic rubber seal is
typically used between the cylinder head and intake
manifold.
• However, because of the heat associated with the exhaust
gases, a metal seal is generally used with the exhaust manifold.
Each manifold is held in place by a mounting flange and a
series of mounting studs that are threaded into the cylinder
head.
Figure. The threaded studs used to
attach the intake and exhaust manifolds
typically remain threaded into the
cylinder head unless a stud needs to be
replaced.

46
 Cylinder Barrels

• Generally speaking, the material used to construct a cylinder

barrel must be as light as possible, yet have the proper
characteristics for operating under high temperatures and
pressures. Furthermore, a cylinder barrel must possess
good stress bearing characteristics as well as high tensile
strength.
• The most commonly used material that meets these
requirements is a high-strength steel alloy such as
chromium-molybdenum steel, or nickel chromium
molybdenum steel. 47
 Cylinder Barrels
• Cylinder barrels are machined from a forged blank, with a
skirt that projects into the crankcase and a mounting
flange that is used to attach the cylinder to the
crankcase.
• The lower cylinders on radial engines and all the cylinders on
inverted engines typically employ cylinders with extended
cylinder skirts.
• The longer skirt helps keep oil from draining into the
combustion chamber and causing hydraulic lock after an
engine has been shut down.
48
 Cylinder Barrels
• The exterior of a cylinder barrel consists of several thin cooling
fins that are machined into the exterior cylinder wall and a
set of threads that are cut at the top of the barrel so that it
can be screwed into the cylinder head.
• The inside of a cylinder, or cylinder bore, is usually
machined smooth to a uniform, initial dimension and then
honed to a final dimension.
• However, some cylinder bores are machined with a slight
taper. In other words, the diameter of the top portion of the
barrel is slightly smaller than the diameter at the cylinder
skirt and this process is called choke-grinding. 49
 Cylinder Barrels
• This cylinder is called a choke bore cylinder or choke-ground
cylinder and is designed to compensate for the uneven expansion
caused by the higher operating temperatures and larger mass
near the cylinder head.
• Honing (cylinder wall treatment); scratching the
surface of the cylinder wall with an abrasive to
produce a series of grooves of microscopic
depth and uniform pattern. The honed pattern
holds oil to lubricate the cylinder walls.
Figure; In most reciprocating engines, the greater mass of the
cylinder head retains heat and expands thereby causing the
upper portion of the cylinder to expand more than the lower
portion. However, with a choke-bored cylinder, the diameter at
the top of the cylinder is less than the diameter at the bottom of
the cylinder which helps compensate for the uneven expansion.
50
 Cylinder Barrels
• The degree of inside wall surface roughness is extremely important,
because it must be smooth enough that it will not cause excessive
ring wear, yet rough enough that it will hold oil for lubrication.
• The exact surface roughness is specified in terms of microinches rms
(root mean square). The surface roughness is measured with an
instrument called a profilometer.
• The inside wall of a cylinder barrel is continually subject to the
reciprocating motion of the piston rings. Therefore, in an effort to
minimize cylinder barrel wear and increase barrel life, most
cylinder walls are hardened.
The two most common methods used to provide a hard wearing
surface are through nitriding and chrome plating. 51
 Nitriding
Nitriding is a form of case hardening that changes the surface strength
of steel by infusing the metal with a hardening agent. Nitriding is a
process of case hardening in which the cylinder barrel (steel) is
heated (in a sealed high-temperature furnace) in an atmosphere of
ammonia gas.
 Most manufacturers identify a nitrided cylinder by applying a band of
blue paint around the cylinder base, or to certain cooling fins.
 One of the problems with nitrided cylinders is that they do not hold
oil for extended periods of time. This problem increases a cylinder's
susceptibility to corrosion and, for this reason, if an engine is left out of
service for any extended period, the cylinder walls should be coated
'with a sticky preservative oil.
52
 Chrome Plating
• Chrome plating refers to a method of hardening a cylinder by applying a
thin coating of chromium to the inside of aircraft cylinder barrels. Chromium
is a hard, natural element which has a high melting point, high heat
conductivity, and a very low coefficient of friction. The process used to chrome
plate a cylinder is known as electroplating.
• Chromed cylinders have many advantages over both plain steel and nitrided
cylinders. For example, chromed cylinders are less susceptible to rust or
corrosion because of chromium's natural corrosion resistance.
Therefore, chromed cylinders tend to wear longer.
• Another benefit of chrome plating is that once a cylinder wears beyond its
usable limits, it may be chrome plated back to its original size.
• To help you identify a cylinder that has been chrome plated, a band of
orange paint may be applied around the cylinder base or to some of the
cooling fins. 53
 Chrome Plating
 Channel-chromed cylinders; Reciprocating engine cylinders with hard
chromium plated walls. The surface of this chrome plating forms a
spider web of tiny stress cracks. Deplating current enlarges the cracks
and forms channels that hold lubricating oil on the cylinder wall.
• As a general rule, engines with chrome plated cylinders tend to
consume slightly more oil than engines with nitrided or steel
cylinders. The reason for this is that the plating channels retain more oil
than the piston rings can effectively scavenge.
• Furthermore, chrome plated cylinders are typically more difficult to seal,
or break-in, immediately after an engine is overhauled. This is caused by
the oil film on the cylinder wall not allowing the necessary wear, or
seating, of the piston rings during the break-in period. 54
 Other Plating Processes
• In an effort to overcome the shortcomings of chrome plated and
nitrided cylinders, some new plating processes have been
developed.
• One of these processes involves mechanically impregnating
silicon carbide particles onto a chromed cylinder wall, instead
of channeling. The silicon carbide provides a somewhat rough
finish so it retains lubricating oil, yet is still smooth enough to
allow effective oil scavenging.
• Furthermore, the silicon carbide provides a surface finish that is
more conducive to piston ring seating during the engine break-in
period. This plating process is commonly referred to as either
CermiCrome or NuChrome plating. 55
 Other Plating Processes
• In another type of plating process called CermiNil, nickel with
silicon carbide particles, is used for the plating material.
The nickel, although not as durable as chromium, provides for
an extremely hard finish while the silicon carbide particles
increase the hardness of the material and aid in lubricating oil
retention.
• A unique characteristic in this process is that the silicon carbide
particles are infused throughout the plating instead of only to
the surface. This tends to further increase the cylinders
wearability while the surface finish is smooth enough for
effective oil scavenging. 56
 Cylinder Finishes
• In the past, engine manufacturers applied special paints to the
exterior of cylinder barrels to protect the cylinder from corrosion. In
addition, this special paint would change color when exposed to high
temperatures, indicating a possible overheat condition that may have
damaged the cylinders.
 Textron-Lycoming cylinders are typically painted with a gray enamel
that appears burned when exposed to excessive heat.
 Similarly, AVCO Continental cylinders are treated with a gold paint
that turns pink when subjected to an overheat condition.
• This enables the technician to detect possible heat damage during
inspection of the engine.
57
 Cylinders (Radial Engines)
• Radial engine cylinders are similar to those used on horizontally
opposed engines except for the skirts, or the portion that extends into
the crankcase.
• Even though longer skirts are used, some oil still leaks into these
cylinders, and you should check for a hydraulic lock as a standard
prestarting procedure. Pull the propeller through by hand (or, in some
installations, with the starter) to rotate the crankshaft through at least
two revolutions to be sure there is no oil trapped in the cylinders.
• If oil is found, remove the most accessible spark plugs from the
lowest cylinders and drain the oil out before attempting to start the
engine.
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 Cylinders (Radial Engines)
Hydraulic lock; A condition in which oil drains into the lower
cylinders of a reciprocating engine and leaks past the piston rings to
fill the combustion chamber. If the oil is not removed before the
engine is started. It can cause serious damage.
• Cooling was a serious problem for some of the larger radial
engines, and the area of the machined fins on the cylinder walls
was not great enough to dissipate all of the unwanted heat.
• These engines had densely finned aluminum alloy muffs, or
sleeves, shrunk onto the outside of the cylinder barrel,
providing the area for conducting away the extra heat.
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 Cylinders (Radial Engines)
• The cylinder heads of radial engines are provided with fittings
to accommodate rocker-box intercylinder drain lines (hoses)
which allow for the evening of pressure and oil flow
between cylinder heads. If oil flow is excessive in one or
more rocker boxes. the excess will be relieved by flowing to
other rocker boxes.
• The intercylinder drain lines also ensure adequate
lubrication for all rocker boxes. If one or more of the
rocker-box intercylinder drain lines becomes clogged, it is
likely that excessive oil consumption will occur and that the
spark plugs in the cylinders adjacent to the clogged lines will
become fouled.
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 END

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LESSON FOUR
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