Pots and Piston Options?

[bobmagyar]

I have taken the plunge and am having my engine gone through over the next month or so. In defence of my budget I am investigating options that I would have if I need to do something with the pots and pistons.

It seems as though a cost effective solution would be to purchase a set of Paeco pistons at 0.020” over and have a machine shop bore the pots to suit. This would be a savings of over $1500. My engine is a 2.2 S so the bores are cast Iron and so they should bore nicely. The Paeco pistons are forged as the S should have.

Does this seem like a logical thing to do? Are the OEM products that much better?

Any opinions or experiences would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Bob

[Steve@Rennsport]

I have taken the plunge and am having my engine gone through over the next month or so. In defence of my budget I am investigating options that I would have if I need to do something with the pots and pistons.

It seems as though a cost effective solution would be to purchase a set of Paeco pistons at 0.020” over and have a machine shop bore the pots to suit. This would be a savings of over $1500. My engine is a 2.2 S so the bores are cast Iron and so they should bore nicely. The Paeco pistons are forged as the S should have.

Does this seem like a logical thing to do? Are the OEM products that much better?

Any opinions or experiences would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Bob

Hi Bob:

Good question and although I have no experience with Paeco pistons, I would offer some things about aftermarket pistons to consider.

First, you must decide how long you expect the engine to last after a rebuild. Some folks are not concerned if one goes through the engine again in 50K and others expect the motor to last as long as the original (or longer).

OEM pistons (forged or cast) are designed and intended for a very long service life and they can be run with very small piston-to-cylinder wall clearances. .001 to .0015 is the norm,.......! This makes for a very quiet running engine that retains a good ring real for the life of the parts.

Aftermarket (USA-made) forged pistons are made from different alloys with dissimilar expansion properties. For these reasons, these pistons (JE, Wiseco, Ross, etc) cannot run at .001-.0015 and must run at .0025-.004 to prevent scuffing and seizure. These manufacturers all use the same basic 2 Alcoa alloys so the differences lie with the piston's shape & design. Piston-to-cylinder clearances do not change.

For racing engines that are expected to be disassembled and overhauled every 50-200 hours, this is not an issue, but when the engine is expected to operate for 100K+ miles, then aftermarket pistons is just not the best choice.

Although economic factors cannot be ignored, one lives with decisions like these for a very long time so I'd encourage you to consider the "big picture".

[Rick Cabell]

Can't ask for a better answer than that.....amen.

[Chuck Miller]

'Let me hear another amen, brothers and sisters'.....