Hi mad jack, I wish I knew what sort of aluminium it is! The seller said it comes from France, and thatīs all he knew. Itīs probably something similar to 6061, very easy to machine anyway. In the other (smaller) machine, there are aluminiums from (at least) three different sources. The power cylinder is from a bar I bought in Hamburg, Germany, the flywheel is from the same local bought French bars, and the displacer cylinder is made from AFAIK a Norwegian bar bought from Sweden. None of the sellers knew much about their properties. They all machine quite well, and polish also well, but the French bars rapidly lose their lustre and turn dull. In the first picture, if you compare the power cylinder and the flywheel, you see what I mean. When I finished polishing them they were equally shiny. The effect is even stronger in nature than in the photos. The power piston is almost like chrome plated, the flywheel is like the bottom of a Coke can.
Iīve had a graphite piston in an ali cylinder in one engine before these two, a steam (= compressed air) engine. I think they work just fine - if the cylinders are rather cool, as they are with compressed or even hot air. I think even in a flame sucker the temperatures would be low enough. I have no experience about steam or I.C., and graphite/aluminium, and Iīm very skeptical until proven wrong

Graphite doesnīt expand nearly as much with heat as aluminium (graphite=0.5-6.5 when aluminium=23.1), so if the cylinder gets quite hot, the graphite piston wonīt follow, and will start to leak. BTW, graphite is "two-directional", it has a laminar structure, like a stack of paper. The expansion across the stack is just 0.5, the 6.5 is along the "grain". A graphite bar is "amorphous", meaning that thereīs graphite particles in every direction. Usually in a graphite bar there are more particles oriented along the bar than across it. So the piston lengthens several times more than it grows in thickness, per every degree of temp. The ali cylinder would expand 46(!) times more with each degree, if all the graphite particles were oriented along the bar. Even if in fact theyīre not, a graphite piston wonīt expand practically at all with heat. So cylinders for graphite pistons should not get very hot, or they will start to leak, no matter what theyīre made of.
Steel has a thermal expansion coefficient of 12 (half that of ali), stainless is 17.2, and brass is about the same as aluminium at 20.3. Anything wonīt come even close to cross-grain graphite in that respect. Pure chromium, and certain glasses are near to amorphous graphite.
Another thing is that a graphite piston will slide freely in just about any cylinder material. It doesnīt much matter, if the cylinder is cool, what it is made of. Graphite will almost certainly be far softer anyway, and slightly scratch against the cylinder walls, and thus lubricate it. And you should never oil graphite. It will not make it more slippery, just the opposite. If you absolutely MUST lubricate a graphite piston, the only alternative is graphite powder

I guess Jerry Howellīs Stirling is so-called beta type, where both the pistons are in line. His recommendation is good in the sense that itīs easier(?) to replace a worn graphite piston than a cylinder. Of course thereīs wear in both, no matter how slippery graphite is, and in an aluminium cylinder, it would be worse. A steel liner would be far more wear resistant, and expand a little less with heat than ali. Also it would be a worse heat conductor, so it would remain cooler for longer, and expand less than ali. Iīm not so sure about using brass, it is harder than ali, of course, but just about as good a conductor of heat, and will expand just as much with it.
The flame sucker might benefit from a graphite piston. Theyīre notoriously hard to lubricate. A graphite piston would solve that. The problem would be keeping the "cold" end of the cylinder cool enough that the piston wonīt leak. If the piston is tight in the cold end, it will be sucked towards the flame (hotter) end, and there it would be more leaky. The flame (=hot gases) will get sucked inside even if it is, but it shouldnīt leak much near the bottom dead center. In my Stirling, there are two narrow grooves in the piston, theyīre trying to imitate a labyrinth seal. Not sure if they do anything useful really, but every little helps... And at the very least, the grooved piston weighs a little less...