Need to choose another set of pistons...

[86MCSS]

Ok long story short my pistons failed on me and just melted on the cylinder wall of my block [not to much but a huge pain in the ass]. After alot of cleaning and re-honing the block is fine and check good for tolerances. I had J/E pistons and want to switch to another brand but I do not want to spend an arm and a leg on pistons and rings. What do you all recommend? I will be aiming for about 400-450 to the wheels [after upgrading turbo]and plan on about a 75 shot of nitrous for track purposes. Please give me some input everyone as I will be ordering monday. Please keep in mind I am low on funds and do not want to spend to much. If you could please throw some prices in with the pistons you recommend and which sponsor to order from for the best prices.

check vehicle profile for an almost complete mod list. Also these pistons will be going on Pauter 4340 Chrome Moly Rods with a knife edged crank.

 

[86MCSS]

Ok I see wiseco forged pistons about in my price range, $400-450 but I am reading they have a high solicone content. How many DSMers are running them and what are your likes and dislikes of them? I have many friends with LS1 based cars using them and what not but how are they on DSMs? Any other pistons someone recommends?

All input welcome.

 

[lambertvr4]

I believe the tolerances are different for the Weiscos compared to the JEs. Weisco has been making pistons for a long time, so I'm sure you would be happy with them.

I understand your choice to change piston brands due to your experience with the JEs. I don't know what exactly happened to your engine and why the failure occured, but I'd recommend finding the source of the problem to make sure you don't have the same thing happen again. I haven't heard of a piston melting down that wasn't caused by incorrect air/fuel ratio and/or spark advance or mechanical failure. I'm not saying that's why your pistons melted down. I just don't want you to have the same experience again.

 

[anomalyinva]

Send a message to Brian Nutter He works for Wiesco. He posts a good bit on these boards. http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=111079&highlight=wiseco

 

[86MCSS]

What happened was a freak accident. The oil filter got stripped being put on the car without my knowledge and fell off a day later and I lost the pistons and rings. I figured since im redoing them I might as well try something new.

 

[86MCSS]

Has anyone on here tried CP pistons? www.cppistons.com

I am starting to hear more and more about them a lot of nascar and NHRA vehicles are running them with great results. I was looking through there catalog and the only thing I dont like is that I only see 9.0:1 compression for the 4g63. I know of a couple honda guys running them and having great results as well for there boosted honda applications.

 

[98evoIIIpwr]

I have had expereince with the Ross piston and Eagle Rod setup. I had a motor built for me with these internals and they have worked very well for me. They are supposed to suppoort up to 650hp. The guy who did all my machine work did another motor and the guy put almost 600awhp down. This guys car is still running with the same internals almost 2 years later, So that shows how reliable this combo is. I actually have a set for the 7 bolt motor for sale and I only payed a little over 700 for them. If you are interested let me know. NOt sure if you have a 6 or 7 bolt though. [email protected] if you want some more info.

 

[98evoIIIpwr]

In reply to my last post. They are 8.5:1 c/r .20 over pistons. If you are going to be running n2o you probably dont want to go with a high compr. pistons right.

 

[86MCSS]

Its a 6 bolt motor.

I have been researching like mad these past couple of hours and was reading up on ROSS pistons as well. My final decision I believe will be between ROSS, Wiseco, and CP pistons [if I can get a lower compression ratio]. This is for a faily driver and more realisticaly will be looking at about 400 whp daily driven. What does this friend of yours use for tuning on his 600whp monster?

 

[Bostedquest]

I have run weiscos in the past and been very happy with them. Enough, that they are in my current engine swap build up motor...

I got pistons and rings for 380 ish/393 shipped I believe... called up summit and got the 8:1... they had to look them up in the book though. Just be very clear about the pin hole size with them, the first set they sent me was wrong.

 

[86MCSS]

Well in case anyone is wondering I went wiseco's. My J/Es were 9.0:1 compression and were very nice and gave the engine a quicker rev. I was debating on going back to 8.0:1 but I stood with 9.0:1.
I tried talking to a representative at CP but was given a the run around so I really didnt get to learn to much about these pistons.

Thanks to everyone who helped out.

 

[greycar]

I ran wiescos last year with no problems at all, Be sure you check your piston to wall clearance properly. JE pistons call for like 50thou clearance where as the wiescos call for a 30thou

 

[blue1]

86MCSS whats the rest of the motor like if the oil filter fell off, the crank and rod bearings would be crap if it ran long enough to damage the pistons.

 

[86MCSS]

Hey blue1,

I replaced all the bearing in the bottom and and had the crank and rods inspected and everything was fine. I also had the block rebored and honed. I had the car back together and running the next weekend after this happened because its my daily driver. Since I have put 1500 miles on it and recently did a compression test and got 185PSI all the way across the board.

 

[boostedinaz]

How did your car having no oil pressure melt a piston? You bottom end would have seized but you pistons would melt. When you melt a forged piston it is due to a lack of tunning or a severe lean condition. You may want to have the whole motor rebuilt because as some have stated each piston will have different clearance requirments, plus with no oil pressure you wiped out the bottom end.

 

[Dauntless]

Well in case anyone is wondering I went wiseco's. My J/Es were 9.0:1 compression and were very nice and gave the engine a quicker rev. I was debating on going back to 8.0:1 but I stood with 9.0:1.

If losing the piston was a freak accident, and you were happy with the 9:1 JE's, why swap at all?

 

[sweet97]

I ran wiescos last year with no problems at all, Be sure you check your piston to wall clearance properly. JE pistons call for like 50thou clearance where as the wiescos call for a 30thou

Those clearances are 5 touusanths and 3 thousanths. .005/.003 Not being a smart *** just correcting. The Wiseco's are the lightest and come in 8.3:1 and 9:1 at Buschur racing for $399. w/rings. Mark

 

[86MCSS]

How did your car having no oil pressure melt a piston? You bottom end would have seized but you pistons would melt. When you melt a forged piston it is due to a lack of tunning or a severe lean condition. You may want to have the whole motor rebuilt because as some have stated each piston will have different clearance requirments, plus with no oil pressure you wiped out the bottom end.

The sidewall of the pistons melted. Not the entire piston. What happened was the oil filter housing has a gasket on the back side of it. This gasket got torn somehow.
story:
I was merging on to the freeway and I guess the last of the gasket came out of the car and all the oil shot out from lack of the gasket being there. Since it lost all the oil the cylinder walls got extremely hott and started melting the pistons from the side walls as well as taking out the piston rings so it lost all compression rather quickly and shut down the engine. Luckily the rings melted first so I lost all compression so fast it had no time to ruin the motor from lack of oil. The only thing cooling the motor at the time was the water in the engine. Remember oil does not only lubricate it also acts as a cooling agent for the motor as well.

 

[boostedinaz]

The sidewall of the pistons melted. Not the entire piston. What happened was the oil filter housing has a gasket on the back side of it. This gasket got torn somehow.
story:
I was merging on to the freeway and I guess the last of the gasket came out of the car and all the oil shot out from lack of the gasket being there. Since it lost all the oil the cylinder walls got extremely hott and started melting the pistons from the side walls as well as taking out the piston rings so it lost all compression rather quickly and shut down the engine. Luckily the rings melted first so I lost all compression so fast it had no time to ruin the motor from lack of oil. The only thing cooling the motor at the time was the water in the engine. Remember oil does not only lubricate it also acts as a cooling agent for the motor as well.

I guess. I would think that they would get hot and expand so much they would seize and if it was still spinng it would have killed the bearing well before it actually melted a piston. Either way it had nothing to do with the pistons so why not just get JE again?

 

[86MCSS]

Im wierd.

 

[bigjdog84]

I don't understand why you would re-hone the block after having JE pistons in there? When running JE's you are supposed to have a larger piston to wall clearence than the wiseco's and other brands, by honing it you are taking off even more material. Meanwhile you are not matching the piston to wall clearence concerning each individual piston.
Each piston may vary in the size of the skirt and you should be matching that up + the reccomended clearence in each bore.

You may want to look at picking up another block and having everything matched properly.
Good luck

 

[86MCSS]

I don't understand why you would re-hone the block after having JE pistons in there? When running JE's you are supposed to have a larger piston to wall clearence than the wiseco's and other brands, by honing it you are taking off even more material. Meanwhile you are not matching the piston to wall clearence concerning each individual piston.
Each piston may vary in the size of the skirt and you should be matching that up + the reccomended clearence in each bore.

You may want to look at picking up another block and having everything matched properly.
Good luck

So how many engines have you built yourself?

Either way the engine is already together and running and has perfect compression with no problems at all.

 

[bigjdog84]

I didn't get a chance to read your previous replies, you just mentioned honing in the first reply. I thought you meant you were just going to re-hone and install the same size pistons w/smaller reccomended piston to wall clearence. But now i see you had it bored/honed, i guess you went a size larger?

how many engines have I built myself? MORE THAN YOU...which makes my engine rebuilding skills much greater than yours, j/k. A few, and I've got 4 other shorblocks right next to me waiting to go under the knife, but what the heck do i know anyways?

I'm glad to hear your engine is running well

 

[86MCSS]

thanks I appreciate it