Best 31/2 cam for all-round flexibility?

[BumbleBee]

More compression generally gives slightly more power, at all revs. People had sometimes told me Sport pistons in an otherways standard Strada was a nice combination. Didn't think much about it until our Strada needed a rebore and only had Sport pistons available. Conclusion; those guys were right it's a little bit better.
Someone might correct me but I think the later Stradas and Sports have the same compression pistons.

G&A

[norbert]

The Strada pistons have a distance of 6 mm from the lowest to the highest points of the upper "heron surface" . This distance is 7 mm with the Sport pistons, what makes more compresion. The pistons for the nicasil cilinders also have these 7 mm (perhaps a bit more?) like the sport ones.

from left to right; Strada, Sport Nicasil

k-20221205_121217.jpg (96.18 KiB) Viewed 206 times

With the nicasil ones there is less clearance between piston and cilinder (lees noisy) and the pistons don´t have the cut you see at the other two. And the bores for the oil have bigger diameter. The rings of the nicasil ones are less hard because the surface of the nicasil barrels is much harder than the cast ones.

Only the first rear sport pistons had a spring under the oil ring, because they thought that there would reach more oil than at the front one. Later front and rear pistons came the same without that spring because they found out that it was not necesary

[MickeyMoto]

This is good info.

A Sport piston with a Strada cam is a good option.

I know the 501 nikisil barrels do not fit an500 crankcase, but do the 350 nikisil barrels fit an earlier 350 crankcase?

[norbert]

Yes, they do.

[MickeyMoto]

Thank you, Norbert.