maney aluminium barrels for everyday use?

no750 · Nov 24, 2016

i am planning to use maney aluminium barrels for a everyday street bike.

i am wondering if the cast iron liners get loose after some amount of heat cycles.
does the motor remain oil tight?
are there any known issues?

i am corious about your experiences.

do you recommend another product?

Thanks in advance!

johnny Lagdon · Nov 24, 2016

I have had Maney barrels and pistons on my 850 mk3 for a couple of years now with no problems.
When I first put them on it gushed oil, but I had to do some small fettling with the supplied fasteners, possibly as I have a modded head. I cant remember...
Anyway wasnt much, and combined with other stuff its a great engine with a lot more omph than standard. How much is due to the barrels? probably not much but hey, if I dont spend money on my bikes, her indoors will spend it on clothes!
I use my bike as a daily rider and its perfectly happy.... so far!
Cheers
Johnny

Fast Eddie · Nov 24, 2016

johnny Lagdon said:
I have had Maney barrels and pistons on my 850 mk3 for a couple of years now with no problems.
When I first put them on it gushed oil, but I had to do some small fettling with the supplied fasteners, possibly as I have a modded head. I cant remember...
Anyway wasnt much, and combined with other stuff its a great engine with a lot more omph than standard. How much is due to the barrels? probably not much but hey, if I dont spend money on my bikes, her indoors will spend it on clothes!
I use my bike as a daily rider and its perfectly happy.... so far!
Cheers
Johnny

Two questions Johnny:

1. What did you do with regards to head gasket, composite, copper, dry, with gasket goo, etc?

2. What's that cheeky looking thing hiding behind the Commando...?

johnny Lagdon · Nov 24, 2016

If I remember maney recommends eyeleted composite, but I ended up using copper, suitably annealed to be sure. I also put very thin cotton around pushrod holes and used very thin smear of something, 2 bond I think although my memory aint what it used to be.
As for that thing lurking behind, hmm, well spotted! That be this:

Fast Eddie · Nov 24, 2016

johnny Lagdon said:
If I remember maney recommends eyeleted composite, but I ended up using copper, suitably annealed to be sure. I also put very thin cotton around pushrod holes and used very thin smear of something, 2 bond I think although my memory aint what it used to be.
As for that thing lurking behind, hmm, well spotted! That be this:

Thanks for the head gasket info.

Very nice Egli sir.

And you must get the prize for 'worlds longest kickstart !!

Fullauto · Nov 24, 2016

I've got 25,000 miles on the street with my Maney barrels. No issues. An excellent product. Just a bit ugly.

Fast Eddie · Nov 24, 2016

Fullauto said:
I've got 25,000 miles on the street with my Maney barrels. No issues. An excellent product. Just a bit ugly.

Don't you mean 'functional looking'...?

Fullauto · Nov 24, 2016

Fast Eddie said:
Fullauto said:

I've got 25,000 miles on the street with my Maney barrels. No issues. An excellent product. Just a bit ugly.

Click to expand...

Don't you mean 'functional looking'...?

Nope.

yves norton seeley · Nov 24, 2016

no750 said:
i am planning to use maney aluminium barrels for a everyday street bike.

i am wondering if the cast iron liners get loose after some amount of heat cycles.
does the motor remain oil tight?
are there any known issues?

i am corious about your experiences.

do you recommend another product?

Thanks in advance!

I use the Maney barrels for years on my Seeley Commando, I have around 50.000 km on the road with it, and never one problem.
Keep in mind that the cast iron sleeves are very soft and you will need to rebore every 10.000 km if you wish to keep your compression in good shape
The most impressive is the gain in weight compared to the original barrels.
The bolds and studs included with the barrels are also top quality.
I use composite head gasket from Andover with great satisfaction, never any oil leak
I resleeve the barrels once, when I put the Jim Schmidt pistons, long rods and so on.
Yves

yves norton seeley · Nov 24, 2016

Fullauto said:
I've got 25,000 miles on the street with my Maney barrels. No issues. An excellent product. Just a bit ugly.

Ugly? I spray my barrels black and after I polish the side of the fins and to me it looks good
Yves

johnny Lagdon · Nov 24, 2016

Fast Eddie said:
johnny Lagdon said:

If I remember maney recommends eyeleted composite, but I ended up using copper, suitably annealed to be sure. I also put very thin cotton around pushrod holes and used very thin smear of something, 2 bond I think although my memory aint what it used to be.
As for that thing lurking behind, hmm, well spotted! That be this:

Click to expand...

Thanks for the head gasket info.

Very nice Egli sir.

And you must get the prize for 'worlds longest kickstart !!

Thanks, took me much time, money and grief, but I luv it nearly as much as my Norton. Kickstart its adapted and lengthened T160...

worntorn · Nov 24, 2016

yves norton seeley said:
no750 said:

I use the Maney barrels for years on my Seeley Commando, I have around 50.000 km on the road with it, and never one problem.
Keep in mind that the cast iron sleeves are very soft and you will need to rebore every 10.000 km if you wish to keep your compression in good shape
The most impressive is the gain in weight compared to the original barrels.
The bolds and studs included with the barrels are also top quality.
I use composite head gasket from Andover with great satisfaction, never any oil leak
I resleeve the barrels once, when I put the Jim Schmidt pistons, long rods and so on
Yves

Click to expand...

Yves, thanks for this info. I was planning to use the Maney cylinders on a custom bike so this is good to know.
10,000 kms is roughly the distance I rode the new Thruxton R last summer, most of it done in two trips. I often do similar summer mileage on one of the old bikes. The main difference between the old bikes and the new one is the old bikes get an oil change at about 4,000 kms whereas the Thruxton R will get changed every 16,000 kms. This is a nice feature of new bikes but not really a big deal either way.
It would be a bit much to think about having to rebore and fit new oversized pistons and rings after just two or three months of riding!
So as much as I like the idea of weight savings, the Maney cylinder isn't going to work out for me.

Thanks
Glen

Mark · Nov 24, 2016

yves norton seeley said:
Keep in mind that the cast iron sleeves are very soft and you will need to rebore every 10.000 km if you wish to keep your compression in good shape

If I had to rebuild my engine every 6000 miles, I'd junk that thing immediately.

jseng1 · Nov 24, 2016

I have 30,000 miles on Steve Maney cylinders. I installed the Maney cylinders as they were supplied (no carbide treatment). It runs great with excellent compression and no problems.

The proof is in the leakdown test.

[video]https://youtu.be/6Ip14UrpNYg[/video]

Note that Yves had his cylinders carbide treated and they should last. See his email message to me below:

"Hi Jim,
Must be around 10.000 kms, no problems at all, your crank is great and the carbide seems to work very well, maybe I will take the cylinder off this winter to check
Note: before the carbide treatment I put new sleeves in the Maney cylinder, and I discover that there was no need to make the slots to make space for the JS conrods.
I think that no slots mean less wear on the pistons.
The lightweight lifters and valves springs are also top of the game.
I dont touch the engine since 10.000 kms and this never happends before
And believe me, I ride hard
Great work Jim
Thanks
Yves"

Matchless · Nov 24, 2016

My 920cc Maney cylinders, in combination with Jims lightweight pistons, have over 6,000 hard ridden miles on them. No loss of performance/compression so far. I think the 10,000 km comment must be a mistake.

Martyn.

acotrel · Nov 24, 2016

The wear rate sounds excessive. I think the Alfin barrels from years gone-by used Meehanite liners. Calcium is added to the melt to precipitate calcium silicide - hard as the hobs of hell.

Dances with Shrapnel · Nov 25, 2016

I found excessive wear on two race bikes back around 2003-2005 and solved the problem with carbide impregnation of the cylinder liner surfaces. Here in the States, Bill Mohler of Bore-Tech Engineering solved the problem with a carbide impregnation.

https://bore-tech.com/Carbide Bore Process

There has been quite a bit of speculation as to why the accelerated wear - there are so many variables with a nonstock engine. I think Herb and I may have even tried an LA Sleeve application and still experienced excessive wear. With the carbide impregnation, it is all moot.

maney aluminium barrels for everyday use?

no750

johnny Lagdon

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