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This might be a stupid question but I would hate to start this project with a stupid mistake. I have a 97 220 and am doing a fresh top end rebuild. I had a shop hone the cylinder, measure the cylinder and order a Wossner piston and rings. The rings come with a stamping on them. N100. Do they get installed with the stamp upwards? I am guessing so but I want to make sure. It didn't come with instructions and I couldn't find anything on their website. I have searched here and not coming up with anything. It's been 30 plus years since I have been in a two stroke so I am taking it slow.

Does your cylinder have a sleeve? The stock plated cylinder should never ever be honed.

KDXGarage wrote: 09:28 pm Apr 02 2026 Does your cylinder have a sleeve? The stock plated cylinder should never ever be honed.

While my first reaction was to cringe at the thought, assuming it was a ball hone or other typically available hone intended for steel/iron/sleeved cylinder bores, there are precision diamond hones (which are very expensive) made specifically for Nikasil, and generally only possessed by shops, so there's always the slightest chance the shop actually used the correct type of hone.

Nikasil is a rather thin layer though, so honing it with something that can properly cut it certainly can go wrong rather quickly, requiring a re-plate job. I believe a diamond hone is intended to only make several quick passes through a Nikasil-plated cylinder.


I was talking to another fella just recently that expanded my knowledge base a bit for me. He said that diamond hones take the material off so fast that he exclusively uses some other types of hones, I'll just quote him for lack of me researching his recommendations:

"use Levigated Alumina and Aluminum Oxide hones on plated cylinders, doesn't touch the Nikasil. Using Levigated Alumina. you can hone brass and aluminum with as well. Diamond hones take so much material."

He advises that he exclusively uses hones from BrushResearch.com

I personally use a Scotch Brite abrasive pad by hand for deglazing. If I think the plating is worn to the point of the bore being slightly out of round, I'll send it to Boyko Racing, as Ted Boyko has a diamond hone for his precision honing machine, and if it's able to be squared up, he'll do it, and then it'll be suitable for a Wossner B or C-sized piston (but never a Wiseco, as they not only are inaccurately sized and with a worsening reputation in the last several years since Race Winning Brands bought out Wiseco, ProX and others and sent their quality control down the toilet, but also, they are only sold in advertised A-size for a brand new bore spec inside diameter).


I was thinking about making up a slit mandrel to slip a long scotch brite pad through in order to do some faster deglazing of plated cylinders, as I've seen this done before.

The owner's manuals state that the stock Electrofusion cylinder should not be honed. Stock is Electrofusion, not Nikasil / nickel silicon carbide.

Diamond hones sound great during the replating process, as they want to remove the new plating down to a certain size, producing cross-hatching. It does not sound so great to use to remove glazing, as it once again removes plating.

KDXGarage wrote: 09:28 pm Apr 02 2026 Does your cylinder have a sleeve? The stock plated cylinder should never ever be honed.

I didn't consider that. I brought it to the local repair shop (they don't specialize in any one brand but work on a lot of different machines ranging from jet skis, snowmobiles and motorcycles.) to have the measure the diameter of the cylinder so the right sized piston and rings could be ordered. I had them order the piston and rings. They knew what machine it was so I figured they knew if it could be honed. I attached three pictures and from what I know about sleeves it doesn't appear to me that it is sleeved. The third picture is of the Wossner piston and rings that they ordered. I don't know the history of the bike since I have only had a little over a year but disassembling it I was under the impression it was all stock. Nothing has been done to the exhaust or intake so I was thinking everything was stock.

It is hard for me to see on those pictures. See if there are any chipped edges around the ports.

Electrosuion coated cylinders do not have strong cross hatching like most other cylinders.

Hopefully they took it gentle. Maybe they used one of the brush types that is for deglazing.

On the ring ends, do they have an arced end? Is there a piston ring pin in the piston that would match up to it?

KDXGarage wrote: 09:11 am Apr 05 2026 It is hard for me to see on those pictures. See if there are any chipped edges around the ports.

Electrosuion coated cylinders do not have strong cross hatching like most other cylinders.

Hopefully they took it gentle. Maybe they used one of the brush types that is for deglazing.

On the ring ends, do they have an arced end? Is there a piston ring pin in the piston that would match up to it?

Now you have me thinking. I want to do it right. Considering sending the cylinder out and have it sleeved. I would like to use the purchased piston and rings though. Would that be a better approach?

Why would you have it sleeved? That is in fact the opposite of doing it "right." Get it re-measured if in doubt, by a different shop than the one who ran a hone through it, and if needed, re-plated properly in Nickel Silicon Carbide plating by Millennium Technologies or PowerSeal USA. I'd certainly hope that the first shop who honed it would at least know how to properly measure for and size a piston. I'd say you likely are pretty fine to run it as is, but measuring again certainly doesn't hurt. An automotive machine shop could also do a fine job of measuring, if no other professionals were available with a dial bore gauge or telescoping inside bore gauge + micrometers. A dial bore gauge is preferred. One step and done, albeit a more complicated setup of the gauge with the correct pins and spacers to measure the bore size in question.

Sleeving is acceptable, but not recommended unless the cylinder has been stripped and re-plated 3-4x already and the aluminum is becoming too porous from the repeated acid bath stripping, then requiring boring to a 70mm Wiseco spec in order to get back down to fresh smooth un-pitted aluminum, which then is ran for an eternity and then stripped and replated 3x-4x, until the oversized 70mm bore surface has become too porous and pitted from the numerous acid bath strippings. At that point, if the head gasket surface is still good, then would be the time that you would want to look into a sleeve... That's A LONG LIFE for a cylinder before ever requiring sleeving to be acceptable.

That brings another question to mind, these other types of hones that I was just introduced to from the guy I quoted above, he stayed a day even have homes for brass and aluminum, why would you strip a cylinder with an acid bath solution when you could just hone out the plating without risk of creating a porous pitted cylinder base metal surface?

KDXGarage wrote: 11:43 am Apr 03 2026 The owner's manuals state that the stock Electrofusion cylinder should not be honed. Stock is Electrofusion, not Nikasil / nickel silicon carbide.

Diamond hones sound great during the replating process, as they want to remove the new plating down to a certain size, producing cross-hatching. It does not sound so great to use to remove glazing, as it once again removes plating.

Ahhhh....yes, I made an assumption that the cylinder has been re-plated at some point in the past 20 to 30 years, but that was a poor call on my part...

It may be fine as is if there are no chipped ports.

If you ever do anything with it, please read up on replating vs. having it sleeved. Plating is much better.

KDXGarage wrote: 01:02 pm Apr 06 2026 It may be fine as is if there are no chipped ports.

If you ever do anything with it, please read up on replating vs. having it sleeved. Plating is much better.

I think I'm good as well. Back to my original question-Wossner rings. Does it matter which way the rings go in? Does the stamp on the ring go up or down?

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I think I'm good as well. Back to my original question-Wossner rings. Does it matter which way the rings go in? Does the stamp on the ring go up or down?
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N100 stamp up on both rings.

Wossner piston rings should be installed with markings (numbers, letters, or dots) facing up (towards the top of the piston/combustion chamber).

billie_morini wrote: 05:03 pm Apr 06 2026 Wossner piston rings should be installed with markings (numbers, letters, or dots) facing up (towards the top of the piston/combustion chamber).

Thanks! I am good to go. I was having problems connecting to their website but finally got through as well and found an install guide. Must be because of a foreign website? Who knows

Good!

Slick wrote: 06:14 pm Apr 06 2026

billie_morini wrote: 05:03 pm Apr 06 2026 Wossner piston rings should be installed with markings (numbers, letters, or dots) facing up (towards the top of the piston/combustion chamber).

Thanks! I am good to go. I was having problems connecting to their website but finally got through as well and found an install guide. Must be because of a foreign website? Who knows

They have two websites, one is the USA version website, Wossner Pistons USA. The other is the European website where the company is based.