tearing down the motor i missed and let one pistons from my 460 hit the floor. its a stock 71 piston. I plan on reusing them for this budget build up project. it looks ok, whats the chance I cracked it? do you think its ok to use?
If this is a performance oriented 460, then i would toss all those stockers on the floor and get some new ones, my keith black pistons for my 466 cost $293 from summit. If its a stock rebuild, then new stock replacements are relatively cheap from federal mogul.
I dropped my #1 piston on the floor too. I pushed it and it came out easier than expected and hit the the cement floor. I inspected it w/ a magnifing glass and can't see any cracks, only the small dent on the top edge of the piston. The dent doesn't seem to cause the piston the be "out of round" on the edges, however it did push some metal up on top (a slight hump). It will still fit in the cyclinder. I don't want to buy another one if I don't have to.
This is the best pic I can get due to the light shining on the rounded piston:
i did the same thing with my piston on my 302 i rebuilt, it fell from the engine stand and knock it a bit flat on the edge. it fit fine and engine turns great.
you can file it down or something, but if it fits and and doesnt scar the cyl wall, then it should be fine. Hell if it can survive a simple 3 foot fall, then how will it hold up against thousands of explosions per minuite??
Because dropping it on the floor is not the same as the explosions inside the chamber. It could have landed in any direction whereas the combustion is evenly spread across the top of the piston only. If you really want to reuse the stockers, check them over as much as possible and use a magnifying glass to check for any cracks or anything.