I ordered a Cison L4-175 and received an L4-205 Big Bore for the same price, which has 3 cc more displacement and is probably the 2.0 variant of the L4 engine.
The joy of the engine begins with unpacking. It is not in a cardboard box or a plastic box but in a beautiful bamboo wood box with the engine logo and model lettering burned into it. The individual engine components are placed in molded foam, the small parts and screws are sorted in well-labeled and illustrated small parts boxes. The building instructions, which are written in English and have extensive illustrations, must be downloaded from the website.
I am fascinated by the metal aesthetics, the wonderful weight and solid quality of the individual engine components. We live in a time where almost everything is geared towards cheap production and manufacturing. Cison makes an exception here that justifies the price of the kit. Every component, be it crankshaft, connecting rod, camshaft, cylinder head, gears, etc., is made from solid material with outstanding precision. I checked some fits. Thanks to only minimal tolerances, the parts fit into each other almost by themselves. The engine block and its surface quality is the highlight for me. You can put it on the shelf as it is. For me, each component is beautiful, like a little piece of metal jewelry. Anyone who has a passion for mechanics, who wears hand-wound watches and can recognize and appreciate quality should treat themselves to a Cison motor.
I won't build the engine because you won't be able to see most of the beautiful parts of the finished engine. Unbuilt, the kit has the appeal of an open but untouched box of first-class chocolates with everything still inside.
My only complaint is that some parts are tarnished and the connecting rods are partially discolored. Probably some kind of light corrosion that can't always be polished off. This is unimportant for people who build the engine, because you won't see these parts afterwards anyway. For me as an esthete, the only negative point about this wonderful kit, which costs Cison the fifth star, which I would otherwise have liked to give.
