What pistons.

[jettster91]

Well ive been searching for about an hour now and i cant really find any good answers. Im at the stage where im buying my rods and Pistons. I already decided that im going with Manley H beam rods. But im stuck on what the best piston to get. Wiseco. Manley. Ross. Or JE pistons. Ive seen alot of people having problems with Standard Wiseco Pistons cracking. Does the Wiseco HD pistons have the same problem? Im looking for 600hp to the wheels. its going to be a weekend warrior track car. so it wont get driven everyday. Im really leaning toward the Manley pistons. Are they going to take the abuse im looking for? Or would the Wiseco HD pistons be a better route

Any info would be help ful. If theres already a Thread covering this please let me know.

 

[Talyn]

I've also heard of, and seen some evidence of wisecos not holding up, not sure if that extends to the HDs or not. Personally I'd stay away from either type bc of it. I would also stay away from Ross, Idk of any particular issues with them, but when I reused a set of them in my build I found out that they lost their ring supplier, and now if you have to buy replacement rings for them they have to be custom made, I think it cost me something like $175 for a set of new rings...I was almost tempted to buy a different set of new pistons for ~$500 that would include rings. If I were buying a new set, itd probably be between mahle, manley, and magnus.

 

[907dsm]

Here you go man ...

http://www.jacksonautomachine.com/buy_products/2-0-stage-1-rotating-assembly/

 

[keltalon]

What kind of compression ratio are you trying to run?

 

[BogusSVO]

The set up I been using for a bit now is BC rods for the 6 bolt with the 22mm wrist pin small end, this way you can run the 2g/7bolt pistons. Je pistons 297511

That get coated up at FFWD

 

[CrackedDSM]

I'm running Wiseco HD stroker pistons in my long rod 2.4 that I plan to rev to 8.5k(9k if the turbo makes power that high), and I'll document everything to see how long they last flowing 60-68lbs/min.


Also, BogusSVO is the man, listen to his advice. He's the one that built my motor.

 

[JacksonAuto]

Every piston has its place in the world and when the wrong piston is selected for a particular application that's when you see premature failures. I've seen cracked Wisecos and I've also seen them go for 80k miles in a 600whp 4G63. There are a lot of factors that go into piston selection. Many manufacturers are focusing on making lightweight pistons because it sells more pistons but it's not good for ring support or durability. We use standard Wisecos with great success in engines up to around 600whp. Over that we will use their HD version up to around 700whp. We don't like the narrow skirts or the milling around the pin bosses; this is where you see them cracked. Like I said, lightweight is good for sales but not durability. The problem with the slipper skirt design is that under higher cylinder pressures (high compression, boost, etc) the smaller skirt area is unable to support the piston properly. You end up with a loss of ring seal. The load is also focused on a smaller area which accelerates wear instead of distributing the load evenly. These forces are transferred directly to the already weakened area around the pin boss and this is part of why the pistons crack in that spot. For the higher HP boosted builds we almost always use a full round skirt design, usually Venolia. Any HP that's lost due to the extra weight of the piston is easily gained back by the ring seal.

 

[Kapok6]

Ballpark, whats a set of Venolia's cost?

 

[jettster91]

So it's seeming like the wiseco is out of the question. Anyone use Manley or Je pistons with any problems from cracking?

 

[BogusSVO]

I have not seen an issue with JE pistons... But then again, I have not had seen a set of Cracked Wiseco either.

Any piston can fail if your tune is off.

 

[jery1234]

I'm using Mahle eagle combo for 3 years now in my 2.3 strocker . The car is DD tuned @42 psi . Don't have any problems so far . I like the low expansion pistons for being so quiet. Other than that I head good success with ross .

 

[JacksonAuto]

Ballpark, whats a set of Venolia's cost?

We sell two versions. One is more basic and runs about the same as a set of Wiseco HD's. We include custom made pins from Trend which are a step above what you get with Wiseco pistons along with PM top rings, napier second ring and std tension oil ring. The second version has all of the same features but includes Venolias "hard tuff" coating. This is more like an anodizing instead of a sprayed on moly like most coatings. The entire piston is treated and the benefits are better wear resistance and even thermal expansion which eliminates tight spots which are common with bare aluminum or moly coated pistons. They're $845/set with pins, locks and rings. Both versions utilize double spiral locks for pin retention- and upgrade over standard round wire locks. The biggest advantage with the Venolias is that they're all custom made which allows us to tailor them to the particular customers needs such as compression ratio, deck height, etc.

 

[JacksonAuto]

So it's seeming like the wiseco is out of the question. Anyone use Manley or Je pistons with any problems from cracking?

We've been using Manley pistons quite a bit recently because of some QC issues with Wiseco. So far feedback has been positive. I had the luxury of freshening up two engines that we built a couple years back in which we used the Manley pistons. Both looked great upon disassembly and we were able to reuse the same pistons over with just new rings and locks. They are a full round design which is great but they lack a few features (such as forced pin oilers) and their ring pack isn't as nice as what we or Wiseco include with our pistons.

 

[Kapok6]

Thanks for the info. I may be building a higher hp motor down the road and this info has been helpful.

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

I'm using Manley Pistons and H Beam Plus rods but haven't got it into the car yet. Here is what they look like. In all the years I built SBC's, Manley never gave me any problems so I'm going with them in my DSM. Will keep you posted as I should have it in the car shortly, weather depending....