It appears the air from the workshop compressor was full of water. We were trying to run in the motors with too much water in the air.

If the motors get run in properly(1 hour at low revs) they can handle a bit of water but not out of the box.

We are now in the process of fitting a decent water separator / drier to the air system. 

Cheers

Did the separator work beages?

Good air supply filter and in line air oiler will make the air motors last a lot longer. 

A lot of water could lead to micro welding but you should see that on the rings as well as the bores.

The HP air start motors I work with all have fine mesh inlet filters, they always have grit and crap from the steel supply lines in them. Air oiler after that directly into the motor.

I would get onto the manufacturer and ask what the specs for the the air supply quality are,  and if an air oiler is required.

Sounds like the air dryness should be sorted.

I forgot to add that the supply air pressure has to be correct too, to low and the rings will not seal correctly, which leads to jogh blow-by and high crankcase pressure, poor power, too high supply pressure and the ring pressure will be to high. Just pondering the reported bore damage. 

I am very surprised that the new 9000 dollar motor didnt come with manuals etc.

You're blowingotors because they're not well assembled. My local aero-engineer sometimes picks up 30-50HP when blueprinting brand new Lycoming's. Properly re-built from new, the Globe will be fine IMO. No amount of running-in changes will solve your issue. A good engineer in NSW is Croft Engineering in Tomerong. Old Jack there builds a bloody good air-cooled motor. Full machine shop on site, etc.

A quick update on where we are at now. The boss got desperate and bought two new motors from a different manufacturer ( Chinese)

They lasted less than two hours before they fucked up. I pulled one apart this afternoon and same story, rings hadn't bedded properly and some 

seriously scored bores.  There was another contributing factor involved but, the exhaust system wasn't flowing freely enough .

I am now convinced the problem was the initial run in period with too much water in the air.

Thanks for your input boys