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It is not always that you hear high performance and long life paired together, especially when referring to performance aircooled engines. It is very typical, even with high-powered cooling systems, that high-performance engines run too hot, and as you know heat kills! Higher operating temperatures result in a thermally overloaded engine that, among other things, has cylinders that fail to seal against the head or can't stay round, requires constant maintenance, and has a significantly shorter life spans versus stock configuration engines. Displacement alone doesn't make it better, Nickies™ make it run cooler and make more power. Our Nickies™ package is the culmination of every technological advance related to pistons and cylinders for your aircooled engine! Nickies™ make the difference! What size Nickies are available for my Porsche 356?
All cylinders listed are in-stock! Custom cylinders are available at no extra cost. Complete Nickies cylinder listing available here in pdf format. New for Spring 2008! LN Engineering now stocks complete Nickies and JE Piston sets for immediate availability, now only $3117 including Nickies, JE Pistons, and ARP head studs: 86mm & 90mm Nickies & JE Piston kits now in-stock for street applications! all other sizes available 3-4 weeks We also have in-stock reconditioned Mahle alloy cylinders with JE Pistons in 86mm for $1889 including core charge. 80 or 81mm 2 pc or 82.5-85mm 3 pc aluminum cylinders also available. Looking for more horsepower and torque on a budget? We've put together a guide on building an 1883cc Porsche 356 engine. Click here to read!
Our NSC-plated, CNC billet, solid aluminum Nickies™ provide:
We bring “6-cylinder” performance to your “4-cylinder” without sacrificing reliability. Click here to read more about the Secrets of LN Engineering's Nickies™ Cylinders
Frequently asked questions regarding our 1883cc
Nickies™
My mechanic says
you cannot build an engine larger than 1720cc and have it be
reliable. How are Nickies™
reliable in the 1883cc 90mm size?
Typical 1720cc 86mm cylinders have very thin cylinder walls and it
is this fact coupled with their poor cooling that causes the main
limitation to making more useable and reliable horsepower. Nickies™
provide excellent cooling and our 1800cc and 1883cc big bore kits
are machine-in, requiring your case and cylinder heads to be "opened
up" to accept our thick-wall cylinders, as typically done with other
Porsche and VW engines. Some customers ask us for larger bore sizes
than 90mm, but our choice to limit the bore size to 90mm is one that
allows us to remove the least amount of material from the cylinder
heads and crankcase. To that effect, Porsches cylinder head castings
are thick enough and well-supported in the area where the heads are
"opened" up and at the case, enough material is left such that if a
case-saver were needed for whatever reason, that the outside
diameter of the case saver does not intrude into the larger case
spigot diameter.
My 1720cc engine
has plenty of power? Why should I use Nickies™
and why should I consider going to a larger, 90mm 1883cc cylinder
over that of my current 86mm 1720cc? There are three things that
kill engines - heat, rpms, and excessive compression. To make
horsepower with a 1720cc engine, you have to turn higher rpms and
run more compression than compared to an 1883cc engine. When you do
make more power than stock, you make more heat, further stressing
the engine. Nickies™
add significant cooling to both the oil and to the cylinder heads.
An 1883cc engine can be build with stock heads and a relatively
stock cam to have significantly more torque and horsepower than an
equivalently built 1720 due to the significantly increased
displacement. Furthermore, this power comes on much lower than with
a 1720, so less stress is placed on the case, crankshaft, and
connecting rods. Many engine builders have reported excellent
results using C or later crankshaft and rods with our 1883cc Nickies™
kits, eliminating the needs for a billet crankshaft or connecting
rods, or even a billet oil cooler. A 1720cc engine of this output
almost certainly would require a billet crankshaft and connecting
rods to safely turn the additional rpms required to make the same
amount of HP and costing roughly the same to build the more reliable
1883cc engine. The 1883 by that token has superior drivability too,
allowing the use of a taller fourth gear for quieted highway
operation while running cooler than even a stock engine!
Looking for more horsepower and torque on a budget?
We've put together a guide on building an 1883cc Porsche 356 engine
with Nickies™.
Click here to read!
 R&R Pro Billet
Porsche 356 & 912 Chromoly H-beam Connecting Rods
Trying to decide what rods to run?
Time to consider the
race proven, R&R Pro billet rod.
Priced similar to other forged connecting rods, our R&R Pro Billet
Porsche 356 & 912 Chromoly H-beam connecting rods are 100% USA-Made
and are unique in that they use lightweight 20mm wrist pins (unlike
heavier factory 22mm wrist pins) and feature SPS fasteners. Reduced
pin end weight for less reciprocating mass provides improved rod
bearing and crankshaft life and also allows for lighter pistons and
wrist pins too! Features large chamfers to provide adequate side
clearance with Scat and other billet crankshaft fillets. Requires
custom pistons with 20mm wrist pins (sold separately). In-stock
for immediate delivery.
 1883cc
Street & Vintage Race Camshafts
Planning on building an 1883
for your Porsche 356 or 912?
We have your camshaft!
100% new cams, ground on new billets, available with 100% new
precision ground lifters designed to work perfectly with our new
cams. Available in three popular grinds - Torquer and Performer
street grinds and our vintage race grind. All in-stock for
immediate delivery.
Torquer grind for
lots of low end grunt and peak power by 5500 rpm - equivalent to
"Maestro" grind from what we're told by Dema Elgin, who grinds
these for us. Torquer grind also suitable for 1600-1720cc
engines. Our Performer grind is good to 6000-6500 rpm with
plenty of torque at 2500 rpm - a very wide powerband for all
kinds of driving and is also suitable for 1720cc engines. Both
street grinds will work with stock or ported cylinder heads.
Our vintage race
grind is capable of producing power to 7500-8000 rpm when paired
with an 1883cc engine and is a proven winner with our RS200 CNC-Ported
cylinder heads. Unlike most race cams, our grind still delivers
useable torque and provides excellent valve-train, camshaft, and
follower/lifter wear. Suitable for use with any race engine and
peak power and rpms will vary depending on many variables such
as cam timing, displacement, and cylinder head porting.
Torquer and
Performer cams (no core charge) are $294.17. Our vintage race
cam is $323.80. A set of new lifters (no core charge) are
$198.32 per set of 8 lifters/followers when purchased with our
cams.
RS170 & RS200
CNC-Ported Porsche 356 Heads
Interested in the ultimate in cylinder heads for your 1883?
We have the perfect heads for both street and
race 1883cc Nickies equipped engines. RS170 heads in-stock for
immediate delivery. RS200 heads available in as little as 12
weeks. Call us at 815-472-2939 for more information and
availability.
    2009
Pricing Schedule
Contact us at 815-472-2939 or info@LNengineering.com to bring your “tried and true" Aircooled engine to the new standard of precision performance!
The Super 1883cc Porsche 356 / 912 1.9L Build-up For those of you who aren't familiar with William Noblitt, he's a vintage racer who also builds 356/912 engines as a hobby, and does so with the dedication and passion that makes these engines and cars so great. 1800ccs doesn't limit him in the slightest, going from street to track with ease. 160 HP and 148 ft/lb of torque, with peak HP by 5500 rpm and no need to spin past 6000 rpm, there's no loss of driveability. In fact, we've never seen a torque curve so flat! Keep reading below for customer testimonials from Mr. Noblitt.
Where else can you find daily driver reliability and power without the added need for better fans, more oil coolers, or deep or dry sumps? Pictured above is the dyno output for our 1966 Porsche 912 1883cc "Super Hero" built by Aircooled technology, Jake Raby.
As seen at the Hershey April 2006
Under the sheet metal: 167hp @ 6000 rpm and 152+ lb/ft of torque from 4500-5500! SPECIFICATIONS: Compression 9.28:1, single plug, Neutek Sx-3 cam, LN Engineering RS170 Cylinder Heads, 44 IDFS, Scat billet crankshaft (std weight), Carrillo rods, Mallory Unilite distributor, Airflow Research aluminum oil cooler, Precision Matter full-flow oil filter pump cover, Skirmants 1 3/4 -> 1 5/8 exhaust with turbo II muffler, stock rebuilt transmission, 215mm flywheel (un-lightened), stock pressure plate, ceramic puck un-sprung clutch. Click here to see our photo journal documenting the entire buildup Read the blog on our 1883cc engine here!
William Noblitt has also made history with his 1800cc Nickies 356 engine and currently runs an 1883 using our R&R Pro Billet Connecting Rods, 90mm Nickies w/ ultra-light JE Pistons and 20mm wrist pins, and our newest RS200 CNC-ported cylinders heads! Yet the best testimonials are those from enthusiastic customers like William Noblitt, who races a 356 with Nickies and also has built numerous engines featuring Nickies cylinders, like these: April 10th. Charles, finished the dyno work today. Didn't spend a tremendous amount of time on the dyno but got it awfully darn close. The readouts are not direct so the data has to be put in a spread sheet to give the actual torque / horse power figures. I'll share that with you when I get the figures. Will say that Les Long from Air Power Racing who has the dyno said the figures were getting real close to what he is getting out of his race engine. Of course he is running at least 2 points higher a compression ratio with a little more than .050" additional lift at the cam and about 30 degrees more duration, a 1720 piston/cylinder set up, considerably lighter flywheel/pressure plate, etc in his all out race engine. His horse power and torque are considerably higher up the RPM range than mine due to the radical cam.
September 9th. After the dyno runs I installed it in my Convertible D and did some incidental driving and ran it in a hill climb. The hill climb was one I do every year and I didn't quite meet my expectations. I was 2 seconds faster than I had ever been before, yet it was an extremely cold day and the tires were not sticking at all or I would have easily gotten under 2:10 which has been my goal for years. Still got within tenths of seconds. William Noblitt can be contacted by email to answer any of your questions or share his experiences with our Nickies™ cylinders both as a customer and engine builder for Air Power Racing.
Congrats Bill! Contact us at 815-472-2939 or info@LNengineering.com to bring your “tried and true" Aircooled engine to the new standard of precision performance!
Copyright LN Engineering LLC ©2008. *LN Engineering features a nickel silicon carbide composite coating similar in appearanceand performance to Nikasil™, a trademark of Mahle Corporation, backed by a limited lifetime warranty. Porsche, Boxster, 356, 911, 914, 986, and 996 are registered trademarks of Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche AG. All other trademarks and copyrights are property of their respective owners. All rights reserved. This content may not be used for any commercial use without express written permission of LN Engineering LLC, and possibly other copyright or trademark owners. |
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LN Engineering is proud to
offer our Nickies™, the
ultimate cylinders for
your powerful
& reliable
aircooled engine.
LN Engineering Nickies™
are Proudly 100% Made in the USA! 
May 3rd: You will be happy to
hear that I ran the engine in my Convertible D (photos