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This may be a question not many poeple could answer but is something currently on my mind. In my experience with diesel engines, cylinder liners are conical when new. The dimensions at the top ring land area are smaller than the dimensions at the bottom. This causes a tighter fit at the top of the liner, compressing rings as the piston reaches top dead center. Because diesel engines are single acting, side thrust causes wear predominantly on one side of the liner, opposite the engine's direction of rotation. Over time, this will cause a bore to become out of round in the horizontal plane, and will give a barrel shape to one side of the bore in the vertical plane. General wear at the top of the bore will "open up" the liner's upper dimension. Even though the days of measuring and replacing individual pieces in a power pack are long gone, it is still necessary to measure liner bores to determine how much life is left in the liner's service. Loss of taper can cause lower compression, causing loss of power. Barelling of the liner causes accelerated ring wear, and formation of a ring land at the top of the liner bore can cause broken rings. All of this is well and good, but my question is how do these things affect the service life of a cylinder and rings in a steam engine's main and valve cylinders? If a single acting diesel engine's cylinders are conical when new, what is "new Spec." for a double acting steam engine's cylinder. And, at what point would changes in cylinder dimension begine to affect ring life? I know that the difference between "new" and "replace" in diesel engine liners is only a few thousandths of and inch. Are these measurements so critical in steam engines? I'm sure these questions are specific and obscure to most poeple, but maybe they would at least make some interesting discussion, thats what's floating around in my head anyway.
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