Engine Replacement Pistons

GoldenEagle91

Active Member
Dec 25, 2012
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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
 
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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
 
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?
 
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.
 
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?
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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...
 
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.
 
[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.