My Terrible Experience With Wiseco

[turboglenn]

a good friend of mine had his #1 piston fail at the wristpi (Wiseco) then went to a set of Ross slugs. I've had nmine in for over 2 years now spraying laughing gas, running e85 at 25-30psi and evenn throwing water/meth injectiuon on top of that with no issues as of yet *fingers criossed*

 

[red1993gsallmt]

I got two of them apart yesterday and neither set shows any cracks. One engine was run with a GT30 on the street as a DD for 70k and the other with and FP Red and was auto x'd and run at track days for 3 years.

Any of those a 2.3, damn i must of got lucky years ago when building a friends motor. We took a block that was bored .020 with je pistons in it and spun a rod bearing at 1500mi. All we did was cut the crank, hone the block ourselves and put new wiseco stroker pistons in it. Never checked the piston to wall clearance or anything. The motor now has about 20,000 hard miles on it with a 35r sees 28psi everyday on pump gas and the last compression test showed 180psi on cyl 1,3,4 and 175 on cly 2. The motor runs great, thats why i choose wiesco for my motor witch has about 12,000 on it and still runs great. I hope they stay that way, now im nervous. Also what rods were used on the broken wrist pin, ive seen that with a set of je's and stock 1g rods. It looked like the guy took to much out of the rod for the wrist pin so it was loose

 

[blackrosenova40]

I used Eagle Rods

Wist pin clearances are supposed to be .0007 to .0009 so there pretty tight.

 

[nikkeebabee]

I'm running Wiseco HD's this year and can tell you while at the machine the pistons had to be line honed for the pins as they were out of spec right from the get go...

They are in the block and seem to be doing just fine currently but I still have yet to turn up the wick.

 

[JacksonAuto]

Both 2.0L engines I assume?

.

All three engines that I referenced were 2.3's.

 

[JacksonAuto]

I'm running Wiseco HD's this year and can tell you while at the machine the pistons had to be line honed for the pins as they were out of spec right from the get go...

This is because Wiseco pistons are NOT PIN FIT from the factory! They're broached. This is why it's imperative that a competent engine builder prepares the components. You can't just buy a bunch of parts, slam them together in a weekend and then blame the manufacturer when a part fails.

 

[Slippi84]

My labor to get everything machined and balanced cost just as much as the parts.

 

[slowgsr]

Good thread, It seems all the NEW wiseco's sold now (non hd) come with upgrade pins standard.. that is if you look the part number sheets on wiseco's site. .200" wall.

 

[nikkeebabee]

This is because Wiseco pistons are NOT PIN FIT from the factory! They're broached. This is why it's imperative that a competent engine builder prepares the components. You can't just buy a bunch of parts, slam them together in a weekend and then blame the manufacturer when a part fails.

I agree 100%!!!

 

[gusu]

Well if they have costumer service like that I don't think I'll buy from them.

 

[99gst_racer]

Well if they have costumer service like that I don't think I'll buy from them.

Don't be so quick to judge. This is only one person's customer service experience you read here. I've been dealing with Wiseco on a weekly basis for over 6 years, and they're one of the best to deal with of the 500+ manufacturers that I deal with. For all we know, there may have been a good explanation for why the OP received less-than-par service. Knowing the industry and how the "chain of service" works definitely helps. The end consumer should be taking their concerns to the jobber that they bought the parts from. That jobber will get in contact with their warehouse rep or a specific rep at the manufacturer. This is the way it's supposed to work so that problems and issues don't fall upon deaf ears. There are people behind the scenes that are there to take care of issues like this when they arise, but if you bypass them and take your own route, you very well may not receive the service that you expected.

If we all decided not to deal with every single company out there that has once rubbed at least one person the wrong way, then we wouldn't have any companies left to deal with. Even companies with fantastic customer service can't please everybody all the time.

 

[Slippi84]

I called WIseco 3 times today for tech info about piston rings and they picked up every time and told me the information I needed quickly and clearly. Like Paul said don't take any one situation as the rule for a companies customer support.

 

[lccynmbr13]

What number do you guys use to get ahold of them? I've been dialing 1-800-321-1364. I almost feel like after the first call I made they see me on caller ID and say hell no I'm not answering that. (Joking). I might try and get back ahold of them one more time and see if they can't put a little sweetness to the sour taste I have about them since this last month and a half as I would still love to have a set of HD1400s for the 2.0 I plan on buildling in the coming months.

 

[99gst_racer]

^^^ That's the same number I use as well. Try asking for someone other than Brian. Ask for Sue. She's always been great to me.

 

[Slippi84]

I just call and hit 1 and someone is right there.

 

[BrokenTsi]

When I pulled apart my 2.0, all 4 wiseco pistons were cracked in the same exact spot. The car ran fine, there was nothing out of the ordinary on the cylinder walls or even on the piston. I was using Manley rods.

I put a Mahle piston in one hand, put a Wiseco in the other, and now I am a big Mahle fan. I'm not complaining about the Wiseco's, I ran great on them, I just think I'll run even better with a piston that is much lighter and apparently built better.

I can understand if ONE piston had cracks in the skirts, but all 4 pistons had 2 cracks......that makes 8 cracks total in my pistons. I didnt bother to call Wiseco about it, the answer was clear to me when I inspected a set of Mahle's.

 

[slowgsr]

When I pulled apart my 2.0, all 4 wiseco pistons were cracked in the same exact spot. The car ran fine, there was nothing out of the ordinary on the cylinder walls or even on the piston. I was using Manley rods.

I put a Mahle piston in one hand, put a Wiseco in the other, and now I am a big Mahle fan. I'm not complaining about the Wiseco's, I ran great on them, I just think I'll run even better with a piston that is much lighter and apparently built better.

I can understand if ONE piston had cracks in the skirts, but all 4 pistons had 2 cracks......that makes 8 cracks total in my pistons. I didnt bother to call Wiseco about it, the answer was clear to me when I inspected a set of Mahle's.

132mph on the wiesco's?

I'd like to hear from anyone having a failure due to the cracking on the skirts.

 

[gieri002]

Yes, I would like to know about this as well, does anybody have any solid factual information that hairline cracking on the skirts has caused an engine failure. Anybody out there?

 

[BrokenTsi]

132mph on the wiesco's?

I'd like to hear from anyone having a failure due to the cracking on the skirts.

Yes. 110mph in the 1/8th

Yes, I would like to know about this as well, does anybody have any solid factual information that hairline cracking on the skirts has caused an engine failure. Anybody out there?

When I get home in a few weeks, I'll pull out my wiseco slugs and inspect them better. My engine block developed a crack between 1 and 2, and a small crack in cylinder 3. I don't believe its due to the cracks in the pistons, but I'm not expert. I was blaming it on my boost level and my aggressive tune. I was trying to make up for the fact that I could not get my car into 2nd gear very good, so I tried to make up for it in horsepower. It was pissing me off running 12.0's @ 130, haha.

 

[cuzco]

I'm runing wisecos in my current 2.0 liter. The pistons were bought last year and have seen about 37psi on racegas. Made the 143mph pass on them and the engine is still running good.
Will be sure to check for cracks when I pull it apart one day.

But a little of topic, would it be ok to build a really high hp engine with a n/t block? The one's with no oil squirters. And maybe use some block filler but still retain watercooling.

 

[TSimage]

I had the same Cracking issues on my Wiesco but I was running a 2.0. My machinist brought it to my attention since I hadn't thought to examine it that closely before I had brought them in for one of my previous builds. Car was never dyno'd but was running a 40r setup on roughly 30-35psi. I switched to JE and didn't have an issue although the motor was sold shortly after.

For my current aluminum rod build I was thinking the Wiesco HDs until Jake personally spoke with me about his issues with them. After that a few other HD issues popped up on the DSM boards and a bunch of local guys had horrible times with them and Machine shops were turning people away who wanted to use them. My next choice was Mahle but I went with Ross due to previous experience.

 

[BrokenTsi]

I'm runing wisecos in my current 2.0 liter. The pistons were bought last year and have seen about 37psi on racegas. Made the 143mph pass on them and the engine is still running good.
Will be sure to check for cracks when I pull it apart one day.

But a little of topic, would it be ok to build a really high hp engine with a n/t block? The one's with no oil squirters. And maybe use some block filler but still retain watercooling.

I use n/t blocks. No filler required.

 

[aero_sallee]

Its strange how many people have had this cracking issue. It would be interesting to know the manufacture date of the ones who have found the cracks.

 

[20psimitsu]

There's allways gonna be manufacturers defects, happen all the time. Some people have nothing to say but good while others had issues. I bought 6 bolt HD's and have been checked and fitted to MAP (HRC) rods with no issue found. Manufacturers always stive to improve a product when problems arise and to keep up with customer satifaction.

 

[DraginX]

I had bought a built motor that was suppose to have a set of wiseco`s in it. Well pulled the motor apart and I have no idea why but it had 3 wiseco`s and 1 JE....
Anyways I ordered a new set of JE`s as that is what I usually run and have never had any issues with them. After reading this thread I figured I would go check out the wiseco`s that were in this motor and sure enough they were all cracked on the skirts just like the OP is posting about. That is a pretty poor ratio I think, hopefully they get this sorted out.