[olddog]

Well not too much talk about the main bearing cap design. I very much like that idea.

I will point out that all the aluminum blocks, I have seen, have steel main caps. Since aluminum's thermal expansion is about 4 times that of steel, the only time the mains are round is when everything is at the temp that it was line bored at. At all other temps the mains are out of round to some degree. Making the caps as a single piece of aluminum certainly solves this problem.

However since both halves of the caps are now aluminum, the bearing clearance will likely change by almost twice that of a steel cap engine. Have you calculated the main bearing clearance, when both cold and at operating temp? It's a little scary starting a modular ford when it is -15 F, as there is almost no clearance left - with a steel cap.

As for the Nikisil, is it similar to nickel? My industrial experience with nickel and other coatings has been that when done correctly it sticks very well and when not it peals off like a bad paint job. We have yet to find a coater that does it right more than about 90% of the time.