Engine Replacement Pistons

GoldenEagle91 · Dec 29, 2012

Hi guys,
I am getting ready to begin my first engine build and have a few questions for you guys. Upon measuring the cylinder bores I found that most all of the cylinders were at about 4.024-.027. I am currently looking for 4.030 pistons to use once I get the engine bored to the new diameters. I will be using the stock connecting rods and standard stroke. I wanted to go with forged pistons and my top end that I can spend is right around $350. I was looking at either probe or dss pistons and was wondering if you guys had any experience with either of the brands. Please give me your feedback and opinions on both companies and your thoughts.

Thanks,
Andrew

88LX5.Oh · Dec 29, 2012

Do you have a need for forged pistons?
If not, save yourself some money and go with hypereutectic pistons.

84Ttop · Dec 29, 2012

remember that you need to have the rotating re balanced when you change the pistons, probably 200$ for just that alone, plus rings and assembly

GoldenEagle91 · Dec 29, 2012

When you say have the rotating assembly balanced are you referring to having the crankshaft cut and balanced and then having the connecting rods balanced as well? As for the forged vs hypereutectic, the forged are used for higher compression/boost (like 12:1 and up) applications correct?

84Ttop · Dec 30, 2012

The crank, rods and pistons need t be balanced together. Any type Of power adder should have forged pistons IMO. If younarenplanning on running na then hypers are fine. Just remember don't go crazy with a lot of high end parts in a stock block there is just no point.

GoldenEagle91 · Dec 30, 2012

Oh ok, I read into what you were talking about last night and it makes much more sense now. I am just going to go N.A so to be more cost effective I will just go with the hypers. Would you say that a cobra intake manifold and GT-40 heads would be the most cost effective route to take for building the upper part of the engine?

88LX5.Oh · Dec 30, 2012

What are your goals for the engine?

GoldenEagle91 · Dec 30, 2012

I was thinking trying to be right around 325 hp and about 350 ft lb of torque. I intend to put a mild cam in it to give it a slight lope and to do long tube headers as well.

clement · Dec 30, 2012

the $350 probe FPS pistons are a 4032 forging like SRPs. not a 2618 alloy, but a solid piston.

GoldenEagle91 · Dec 30, 2012

I think that the hypereutectic is the route that I am going to take because I don't need to have the pistons be bullet proof for my use

ratio411 · Dec 30, 2012

GoldenEagle91 said:
Oh ok, I read into what you were talking about last night and it makes much more sense now. I am just going to go N.A so to be more cost effective I will just go with the hypers. Would you say that a cobra intake manifold and GT-40 heads would be the most cost effective route to take for building the upper part of the engine?

Top end from an Explorer v8...
Just be careful what year your donor vehicle is.
The later ones have P-heads, which is not a bad thing in itself, if you are prepared for the accomodations you will have to make to use them.
Get the heads reworked... valve job and new springs/locks/retainers at the minimum.
They will need the valve job, and the stock springs and such are not for performance use.

Jared Hess · Dec 30, 2012

Hypers would be fine with a setup like that my buddy ran hypers even with a 150 shot for a long time with stock bottom a set of heads and cam and ran mid 11s with the shot but I agree with 84ttop I wouldn't put forged in with a stock block and no boost.

Jared Hess · Dec 30, 2012

Imo if I was Gona put that kinda work in exploder heads why not buy a set of pro comps with the machine shop money and have a little better ones with less weight.

Jared Hess · Dec 30, 2012

I'm a little biased tho with them being on my car lol

clement · Dec 30, 2012

Jared Hess said:
Imo if I was Gona put that kinda work in exploder heads why not buy a set of pro comps with the machine shop money and have a little better ones with less weight.

i have 2 buddies with procomp heads. the sbf 210cc pro comp is 6.5lbs lighter bare than my alum rhs 215s bare. talk about porous. the ford heads the one guy has have come very close to dropping a couple of valve seats out and have started pulling some of the guides out. my buddy with a set of BBC pro comps has had to have at least 4 of the rocker stud bosses welded up due to the 600lb springs pulling the studs out. i had 730lb open springs ( very close to coil bind) on my rhs heads without a girdle for probably 300 passes and they look new, even the seats. personally, id rather have the gt40 heads than the pro comps.

fwiw the bbc head casting and machine quality was much better than the sbf set my other buddy got. his sbf pro comps were garbage from the get go.

ratio411 · Dec 30, 2012

The Pro-Comps scare me too.
Never had a set, but from what I understand, they started out something like like Professional Products intakes...
A joint venture between an Australian company with everything cast cheaply in China.
I have seen the knock-off intakes next to their US made intakes they copied, and the quality, even in the machine work, is night and day.
Some of the intake ports at the heads were out of place! Bolt holes barely lined up...

2000xp8 · Dec 30, 2012

Save yourself a lot of time, money, and headaches and just buy a complete explorer engine. No sense building something you can buy dirt cheap.

ratio411 · Dec 30, 2012

As for the machine work on iron heads, a valve job is a little over 100 bux, and most will discount if you R&R the valve springs yourself.

84Ttop · Dec 30, 2012

Honestly having just seen and used the procomp 190's I'm impressed. I was very skeptical at first but the new castings look solid, they have a thicker deck and actually flow well. We bolted them up to a stock bottom end 302 and with a 150 shot the car made 445 to the tires. We just swapped those same heads to a stock 351 Windsor and will be dynoing that tomorrow. I know they had problems in the past, but they have a brand new casting and for a guy on a budget they cant be beat imo.

84Ttop · Dec 30, 2012

[quote="ratio411, post: 8692455, member: ]
I have seen the knock-off intakes next to their US made intakes they copied, and the quality, even in the machine work, is night and day.
Some of the intake ports at the heads were out of place! Bolt holes barely lined up...[/quote]

I can say the same about my edelbrock super victor. The ports don't match up even close with the cylinder heads, hours of port work to fix not to mention I've seen edelbrocks that have had to be milled when new out of the box too.

Engine Replacement Pistons

GoldenEagle91

Active Member

88LX5.Oh

84Ttop

They make new pistons every day, so why worry?

GoldenEagle91

Active Member

84Ttop

They make new pistons every day, so why worry?

GoldenEagle91

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88LX5.Oh

GoldenEagle91

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clement

GoldenEagle91

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ratio411

Jared Hess

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Jared Hess

Member

Jared Hess

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clement

ratio411

2000xp8

ratio411

84Ttop

They make new pistons every day, so why worry?

84Ttop

They make new pistons every day, so why worry?

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Engine Replacement Pistons

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They make new pistons every day, so why worry?

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They make new pistons every day, so why worry?

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Active Member

Active Member

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Member

They make new pistons every day, so why worry?

They make new pistons every day, so why worry?

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