Suzuki 2 Strokes

Hello, new member here. I am trying to restore a 74 GT550. I need to know how to tell if the cylinders are plated or not. It was a low mileage bike that sat for years after seizing. The original cylinders look good, small discoloration in spots no pits or scoring. It came apart fairly easy after soaking in kroil for a couple of weeks. I also have a spare motor that has been bored .50mm over. Those look rough and would need to be bored again. My problem is not knowing what the originals are. The cruzinimage piston sets for std. bore are made for nykasil and non nykasil. I hope to get to a shop that may be able to tell what they are. If i can't determine what they are and they are nykasil, can they be bored over without sleeving them? This is my second GT. I lost the first one to drunk driver in 1984. Thanks to anyone that can help!

I doubt it's got the plated cylinders. I understand they only went to other countries... Coyote will know.


Lane

If the rear cylinder base studs are stepped higher than the fronts, it's plated. There are also extra ports.
Nikasil plated cylinders were not used in the us.

You would be safe to assume the cylinders are not plated -- unless the bike was imported from Great Britain, Italy etc. None of the 550's sold in north America had plated cylinders.
Also if the bike has the cross overs on the head pipes, it's an American model. The exhaust cross overs were dropped on the European models. I believe that was in 74. Alan?

Yes, that's right. The J (72) and K (73) had them and some of the L's I understand, then the rest had the separates.
More info HERE (clicky) and HERE .

The OJB site in the first link is a very good read.

Thanks for the info. I don't guess I have ever seen plated cylinders so I would not know what to look for. Been out of motorcycling for a long time so I gotta find a machine shop as the one I used 30 years ago isn't there anymore. Again thanks for the replies.