aluminum vs steel master cylinder

[Fox]

ordered a new master cylinder from rock auto the one i received is steel vs the factory aluminum, everything else is right will this be a problem ?
the one i got is raybestos mc39476

anyone know what one to buy to get the 24mm aluminum one ?

[Vigo]

It wont cause you any problems. When i have bought new i have gotten steel for these things in the past. Other than the fact that it gets rusty after a while and stops being pretty, it will do the same job.

[turbovanman²]

What he said, and unless your trying to save weight, IE every last oz, then no worries. I've been using one for 9 years.

[135sohc]

From time to time you can look on ebay and find NOS bendix branded MC's and they are essentially oem parts from old parts store stock being liquidated, thats how I got a NOS brake booster for $35. If you want an aluminum MC.

[zin]

One other point is that the AL units cannot be rebuilt, but a steel unit can. The reason for this is that the AL units have all the Anodizing removed from the bore which will cause a failure very quickly, whereas a steel unit will just be a bit over-sized from being honed, but the rebuild kits generally take that into account and fit properly.

Mike

[cordes]

One other point is that the AL units cannot be rebuilt, but a steel unit can. The reason for this is that the AL units have all the Anodizing removed from the bore which will cause a failure very quickly, whereas a steel unit will just be a bit over-sized from being honed, but the rebuild kits generally take that into account and fit properly.

Mike

You could always have someone anodize it again, but that's most likely cost prohibitive.

[RoadWarrior222]

yah, the original anodising is probably very controlled, time, chemical concentration etc, to put on a specified thickness... now there's nothing to say you can't put "a" coating on it in your garage/kitchen, which would probably be hard enough and thick enough, but you'd have to get real lucky to get the bore to a dimension that you can get a piston for... 'coz the anodising puts a few thou on top of the surface and without knowing precisely what your process does, in terms of how many thousandths it puts on, it's difficult to rebore to a dimension that will end up workable. So yah, that'd be why it would be real expensive to get it done "right" since it'd need custom bits made most likely, or take a lot of time on a spendy machine that kept a close eye on how the coating was going as it went sort of thing.

[zin]

Re-anodizing I think falls under the heading of: "just because you can, doesn't mean you should".... Just about anything other than brakes (which my life depends on), I would be willing to give it a go.

Mike

[cordes]

I wouldn't take it to any place that didn't specialize in it and have a long track record of rebuilding AL MCs. I don't know if there is any place like that out there anyway.