New Honing Options

for Hypereutectic
Aluminum Cylinder Bores
Mercury Marine, BMW, Porsche, Mercedes Benz and other
engine manufacturers use a special aluminum alloy
cylinder material filled with very hard, glass-like particles.
You need to know the dos and donts when honing this alloy.
BY TIM MEARA PHOTOS PROVIDED BY SUNNEN PRODUCTS COMPANY

Background
Alusil , Lokasil , Silitec , DiASil,
Mercosil, ALBOND it sounds like a
foreign language, but these are all trade
names or trademarks for what is
generically known as hypereutectic
aluminum, a new/old material for cylinder
bore wear surfaces. Hypereutectic
aluminum is both new and old. Its
cousins, hypoeutectic and eutectic
aluminum, have been used for pistons and
connecting rods for a number of years.
Hypereutectic aluminum saw one of its
earliest applications as the wear surface in
an unlined cylinder in some Porsche
engines in the 1960s. The 1971 Chevrolet
Vega was the first true production
automotive engine with a liner-less
hypereutectic aluminum cylinder bore as
the wear surface. Despite the cars
reputation, the cylinder concept was
ahead of its time.
No matter what trade name is used for
this alloy or how the cylinder was
created, this material is something
rebuilders should understand because it
may represent the future of cylinder
technology and will probably start
showing up more frequently in rebuild
shops.
When properly finished, hypereutectic
aluminum presents a surface to the piston
rings thats roughly equivalent to glass.
The resulting engine has lower friction,

20

APR-JUN 2008 engine professional

excellent sealing, improved dimensional

stability, improved heat dissipation,
reduced weight, better recyclability, lower
manufacturing cost and higher durability
compared to the traditional aluminum
block with cast-iron cylinder liners.

Aluminum cylinder evolution

Since gasoline burned and forced a piston
down a cylinder for the first time,
aluminum has been the metal of choice
when light weight was the most critical
requirement for an internal combustion
engine. This is as true today as it was in
1902 when the Wright Brothers were
unable to purchase a suitable commercial
engine for their experimental airplane and
built their own, casting the aluminum
block.
Automotive OEMs seized upon
aluminum for the same reason and found
manufacturing advantages, too: lower
cost casting processes and easier
machining. Aluminum automotive engine
blocks are pretty much the norm today,
and the standard solution for a cylinder
wear surface has been, and still is, a gray
iron liner. While low-cost, durable, and
easy to manufacture (the key decision
points for OEMs), engines using the ironliner solution have inherent disadvantages
in weight, size, thermal conductivity,
differential thermal expansion and
recyclability.

Consider that a minimum land width

between cylinders must still be
maintained, even with an iron liner. So
the liner-equipped engine is still
unnecessarily large, still has differential
expansion and reduced heat dissipation
issues, still needs a heavier and larger
cooling system, etc.
A major advance came in 1971 when
GM used Reynolds A390 aluminum alloy
in the linerless Vega block. A390 is a
hypereutectic alloy saturated with silicon,
such that silicon particles are dispersed
throughout the alloy similar to chocolate
chips in cookies. Saturated is the key
word. Small amounts of silicon will
dissolve in aluminum and become
inseparable, but above the saturation
point (the eutectic point), silicon will
precipitate out in crystal form. Typically,
this begins to take place at around a 12%
silicon concentration, and the
hypereutectic cylinder surfaces in use
today range from 12% to 20% or more
in silicon concentration. Depending on
the manufacturer, traces of other elements
likely to be in the alloy can include
copper, manganese, magnesium,
phosphorus and strontium.
After traditional machining of the Vega
engines, the factory cylinder surface was
produced by chemical etching to create a
surface where individual silicon particles
protruded a small distance (perhaps 1.0
m/0.00004" or a little more back then)

Fig. 1 & 2: Two different

illustrations portray the
working surface of a
hypereutectic aluminum
cylinder wall. Typical
protrusion of the silicon
crystals is 0.00002".

above the aluminum

cylinder surface. This
process in cylinder
preparation was, and
still is, called the
exposure step, whether
done by the OEM or
rebuilder. The intent is
for the piston rings to
ride on the silicon
particles, not the
aluminum cylinder wall.
Hypereutectic
aluminum cylinders have
evolved considerably
since the Vega. And while GM led the
way with the Vega engine, today Europe
and Japan are leading the trend to the
linerless aluminum block. OEMs using
the material include Mercedes, Audi,
Porsche, BMW, Volvo, VW, Jaguar,
Yamaha, and Honda. Manufacturers of
power sport vehicles, outboard motors
and compressors also use hypereutectic
cylinders.

Finishing without chemicals

For the OEM, chemical etching of the
cylinder wall was a non-traditional
process and an intermediate step. The
OEM wants to pour the block and put it
in a transfer line. Chemical etching also
became increasingly burdensome as
environmental regulations tightened.
Whether its in a rebuild shop or an
OEM plant, the key to preparing the
cylinder surface is to expose a
tribologically optimized wear surface of
silicon that withstands the grinding
friction of pistons rings on the bore
surface. This requires relieving a small
amount of aluminum from around the
silicon particles. The ideal surface should
have flats on the silicon crystals and
crystal protrusion of 0.5-1.0 micron
above the aluminum, with a minimum of
holes (crystals torn from aluminum) and
fractured crystals. The end product can be
visualized as lily pads (hard silicon) sitting
on still water.

Hypereutectic aluminum crankcases

present another obstacle for metal cutting,
which has led to advancements in the way
the alloy is formulated. Silicon particles
quickly destroy cutting tools. Several
solutions have evolved. Tooling has
improved with PCD and similar materials.
Much effort has also been focused on
improving tooling life by altering
metallurgy to reduce silicon particle size,
while retaining the excellent tribological
properties of the hypereutectic surface.
Based on SEM (scanning electron
microscope) and VICO-Scan studies of
early cylinder surfaces and new products
on the market today, it appears the silicon
crystals have been reduced in size from
about 10 m originally to about 1 m
today, which would materially improved
the machinability of the material.
OEMs also devised ways to localize
and limit the use of silicon through the
use of cast-in hypereutectic aluminum
liners, selective die casting and flamesprayed coatings. Casting the block

Fig. 3: Ideal honed surface imaged by

SEM (scanning electron microscope)
shows smooth-surface, round-edge
silicon crystals (dark areas) protruding
above the aluminum base.
Fig. 4: Close-up of crystal from Fig. 3,
which shows smooth surface, free of
fractures or scoring.

engine professional APR-JUN 2008 21

NEW HONING OPTIONS

BY TIM MEARA

Fig. 5: Surface scans of various hypereutectic cylinder walls producd by different manufacturers
and methods. Red patches are silicon and reflect different sizes and distributions of particles
that can be found on the market.

around special liners complicates the

molding step and production rate. Flame
spraying represents an additional process
step between the mold and the transfer
line.
The Holy Grail is the ideal combination
of metallurgy, cutting tools and lowestcost casting technology that allows
machining blocks straight from the mold,
and some OEMs have found it.

Finished cylinder bore

specifications
From the rebuilders side, Sunnen
developed a GM-certified method for
restoring a factory-quality surface for the
Vega engine. Damaged bores were honed
oversize using conventional abrasives,
followed by an exposure step using a
special lapping paste and felt honing pads.
The process could be used with hand-held
portable tools or honing machines. It
produced excellent results and was ideal
for occasional users. That process has
since evolved, thanks to metal-bond
diamond abrasives, and today there is a
new honing option for OEMs or
production rebuilders, as well as the lowvolume rebuilder. It should be noted, too,
that rebuilders have the option to use a
replacement, press-fit hypereutectic
aluminum cylinder liner available from
Kolbenschmidt, if a cylinder is damaged
beyond the point where it can be repaired

22

APR-JUN 2008 engine professional

Tech Tip
Boring or rough honing
hypereutectic aluminum alloy with
various cutting insert materials,
metal bonded superabrasives or
even common vitrified bonded
abrasive tends to crush or
fracture an inordinate number of
surface-available silicon crystals
required for load carrying
capacity. As such, it would be a
violation of material properties to
simply bore and hone
hypereutectic aluminum alloys
without further surface and
crystal preparation. To that end,
boring and honing alone will only
serve to damage the cylinder
surface and create high
expectation of complete sliding
seal failure. Surface preparation
beyond finish honing is a must.

by over-boring or honing. The honing

process described here will work with this
replacement liner, too.
In our honing process development
work, we found that no two
manufacturers of hypereutectic cylinders

have identical specifications similar to

the situation with plateau specifications
for cast iron. Several block manufacturers
have patented manufacturing
technologies, so rebuilders can expect to
see variety in the alloys and the physical
make-up of the cylinder wall.
There are, however, some generally
common requirements for honing
hypereutectic aluminum cylinders. First is
the need for excellent geometry.
Cylindricity limits of 0.013 mm (0.0005")
are typical. Limits are also placed on the
percentage of fractured or displaced
silicon crystals at the surface, which must
be free of any torn or folded metal.
Because the silicon crystals are
distributed throughout the metal in a
homogeneous manner, there will always
be some that are nearly machined through
and will be displaced from the surface.
Specifications typically call for about
80% intact particles.
There must be a minimum of subsurface fractured material. This is largely
a function of the prior boring step and the
amount of material removed by honing.
Lastly, the exposed silicon particles
must protrude above the base aluminum
from 0.1 to 1.0m. The exposure height
is related to the size of the silicon particles
in the alloy. Smaller particle size will
mean less exposure height. 0.5m
exposure height is about average today.

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engine professional APR-JUN 2008 23

NEW HONING OPTIONS

BY TIM MEARA

(continued from page 22)

Honing Process
Assuming the cylinder was bored using
high quality machinery and PCD or equal
inserts, the honing process will have two
or three steps: honing, finish honing and
exposure. From a honing standpoint,
working with hypereutectic aluminum is
somewhat the reverse of working with
cast iron the end result is measured as a
desired roughness or peak height of the
exposed silicon.
The essence of the honing process for
hypereutectic aluminum is to first produce
an ultra-smooth, mirror-finish surface
with the initial honing steps, then finish
with an exposure step that will actually
increase the roughness, as measured with
a profilometer, by relieving softer
aluminum from around the silicon. The
desired end result is an exposed surface of
rounded-edge primary silicon particles.
Tooling for the initial steps should be
selected according to traditional
guidelines for high-precision honing.
Machine settings, such as RPM, stroking

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Fig. 6: A two-stage GHTS honing tool, which can

be used for roughing and semi-finishing of
hypereutectic aluminum.

speed, stroke length, etc. should be similar

to those used for ordinary precision work.
Feed rates are selected to complement the
part geometry and abrasive
characteristics. All abrasive should be
fully trued to produce 100% surface
contact at the diameter corresponding to
the finish-honing step. Crosshatch angle is
less important than with cast iron and

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APR-JUN 2008 engine professional

will typically be rather flat (5-10 degrees)

due to the slow stroking speed. Instead of
a crosshatch, the aluminum cylinder relies
on the area between the silicon crystals to
hold its oil film. Keep in mind that the
goal in the initial steps is produce a very
accurate bore with a fine (mirror) finish.
MAN-845 Honing Oil is the minimum
requirement and it should be filtered to at
least 10 m, preferably 5 m. No waterbased coolants should be used. In our
process development work, we found that
high-performance EP oil caused a sludge
build-up, which impeded contact with the
ultra-fine honing grit used in the exposure
step. This is the result of the extreme
surface area and high energy found in
freshly cut, ultra-fine metal chips. These
conditions facilitate far more aggressive
chemical activity with the oil additives
than would be experienced with larger
metal chips.
In most cases, the first two honing steps
can be accomplished with conventional or
diamond abrasives. However, because of
the high value of these engine blocks and
the wide variety of OEM materials and
manufacturing methods, it is critical for a
rebuilder to know the exact
recommendation for reconditioning
abrasives or consult a honing abrasive
supplier. Some cylinder materials may
simply require metal-bonded diamond for
all of the steps. Conventional abrasives
with bronze guide shoes are
unquestionably the most economical
option for infrequent work with
hypereutectic aluminum. In production or
OEM work, diamond is preferable for the
first two honing passes.
The first honing step may not be
required if the block has been bored with
a final finish of <=0.5 Ra m (19 in.) If
necessary, as a first honing step we
recommend removal of 25 m (.001 in.),
using classic abrasives or a 29 m
diamond, to produce a finish <=0.5 Ra
m.
The second finish-honing step removes
2.5 m (.0001 in.), again using traditional
abrasive or a 9 m diamond to produce a
finish <=0.1 Ra m (3.9 in.)
The final exposure step requires a new
specially developed, elastomer-bond
abrasive (XM27), using light honing
force. For the exposure step, we
recommend tooling with the greatest
abrasive surface contact area. This step is
based on time, typically 1 to 11/2 minutes
for 0.5 m exposure height. Longer cycle
times are not harmful, because the process

NEW HONING OPTIONS

BY TIM MEARA

Fig. 7: This illustration shows the action of the

elastomer-bond honing stone used in the relieving step.
It conforms to the surface with minimal pressure,
allowing the abrasive to remove soft aluminum with
little to no effect on the silicon crystals.

Fig. 8: Original Profilometer trace (lower) of 0.157

(4 mm) length on a hypereutectic cylinder wall is
shown at greater magnification (upper) to highlight
the characteristic silicon-crystal bumps of about
0.00002 (0.5 mm) height whichreflect a correctly
finished surface.

is somewhat self limiting. It is absolutely

critical that honing force or pressure be
kept as low as possibly, while still
maintaining tool stability. Surfaces shown
in the accompanying illustrations were
honed with less than 5 lb/in2 pressure.
The elastomer based stone is
purpose-designed to overcome three
limitations of rigid abrasive in the silicon
exposure process. First, the elastomer
serves as a cushion, deforming to allow
individual abrasive particles to literally
bounce over the silicon particles, while
still being rigid enough to cut the
surrounding aluminum. Second, the
elastomer dampens or limits the overall
force applied to the abrasive, making the
process very forgiving of variations in
pressure from the honing machine feed
system. The honing tool diametrical
expansion does not have to exactly match
the rate at which the cylinder is increasing
in diameter from stock removal. Third,
the elastomer conforms to any taper or
out of roundness in the cylinder, allowing
it to remove very small (0.5m/side)
amounts of material, uniformly
throughout the cylinder. With rigid
abrasive, any out of roundness in the bore
would result in abrasive cutting pressure
variations as the honing tool rotated.

Critical Point
Process Verification
Any shop planning to do work on
hypereutectic cylinders must have a
Profilometer or similar instrument for
contact surface texture measurement to
verify results. The instrument should
produce a trace, not just a readout, and
must be capable of Rk, Rpk and Rvk
measurements. These engine blocks can
cost $4000 or more, so honing without a
Profilometer to verify results would be
negligent.
Prior to the exposure step, the
Profilometer will should show a very
smooth surface (<0.1 m Ra), which
becomes rougher according to the

26

APR-JUN 2008 engine professional

instrument after exposure. This is

because the instrument senses the exposed
silicon crystals as surface finish features
(peaks). Several traces of the stylus across
the surface may be needed before the
stylus hits a silicon particle to verify peak
height. The absence of a peak means you
probably need to make another trace. The
presence of a peak verifies success. If no
peaks are encountered after 8-10 traces,
more time on the exposure step is needed.
Hypereutectic aluminum is not yet a
mainstream material, and the different
alloys and OEM manufacturing methods
ensure there is no standard to refer to
yet. However, the honing techniques
outlined here were developed for OEM
use and can easily be practiced in
rebuilding. Nevertheless, until it becomes
as familiar as cast iron, rebuilders may
want to proceed with caution, and consult
a honing abrasive supplier as needed.

Tim Meara is the Senior Honing Technician for

Sunnen Products Company in St. Louis, MO.
For more information, please call 314-781-2100
or go online: www.sunnen.com.
Alusil and Lokasil are registered trademarks
of KS Aluminium-Technologie AG. Silitec is
a registered trademark of DaimlerChrysler
AG. ALBOND is a registered trademark of
Mahle GmbH. Mercosil is a registered
trademark of Brunswick Corporation.
Profilometer is a registered trademark of
Warner & Swasey Company.