Wondering what the situation is with lyc cylindrs these days since ECI seems to have be absorbed by Continental. Need to top a 540. Don't really want to overhaul these factory cyls. Should get Superiore or factory Lyc? Looks like cont is even selling titan cylinders for lycs. Weird? Lots of talk about nickle bore but can't find it anywhere but the cont/eci titan ones. Plane doesnt fly that often, maybe once a month. Thanks.

Just had a long chat with the Continental factory rep. He was indicating that they scrapped all ECI tooling and have re tooled the whole line. They are proceeding to certify the lycoming engines built from pma parts.

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Mt humble opinion from all the way across the pond is that all new cylinders can leave a bit to be desired. It is a bit of a crap shoot. What the top engine builders I know do is get "any brand" new cylinders and prior to fitting, carefully check valves for correct seating and rings for correct end gap at the top of the cylinder. Also the piston to cylinder clearance is measured.

Sure it can cost over and above the price of a new cylinder but it can mean the difference between the cylinder making TBO or requiring removal half way through engine life, particularly when it comes to exhaust valve seating.

I recommend purchasing new cylinders from either LyCon or Custom Airmotive. Have had both companies overhaul engines and am very happy with the results. They will make sure they are perfect and will stand behind their product 110%.

I recently looked into this too. Here's what I found for the current landscape of 360/540 cylinders.

Lycoming factory (hardened steel bore):
http://shop.aeroinstock.com/p-12917-lyc ... 1463633566

Superior Millennium (hardened steel bore):
http://shop.aeroinstock.com/p-13012-mil ... 1463633566

CMI (Continental motors, formerly ECI, nickel and steel bore):
http://shop.aeroinstock.com/p-39789-air ... 1463633566

I only use the Aero In-stock site because their store is well-organized, but their prices are pretty good it seems.

It would appear that the only nickel game in town is the CMI/ECI cylinders. For a while the rage was "Cermanil" plated bores but I could find no mention of it on the manufacturer's sites as of a few months ago.

Cylinder longevity feedback appears to be largely anecdotal. I have heard both sides of the fence on all these brands. ECI was the only one that I know of that has an AD on cylinders manufactured 9-10 years ago though. Interested to hear their manufacturing line has been overhauled.

Curious why you wouldn't overhaul? Have those cylinders been honed out/oversized in the past?