What brand pistons are you guys using? and what do you recommend and don’t recommend? I heard the je\srp’s suck. I know this topic may have been covered before, so don’t tell me to search. I’ve done my own research, but wanted to know people’s personal preference and what they are currently running. This is for a boost setup.
Also wanted to add if there were any major differences from 9-1 and 9-5-1 comp ratio? This would be as far as how much boost and how hard to tune. I was thinking 9-5-1 to make more power with less boost, but I’m no expert. Like I stated, I have done plenty of research, but wanted personal experiences and preferences…especially from people with ls turbo builds. Thanks for any positive replys.
CP seems to be the current “bandwagonish” brand, but for good reason. Their pistons are excellent, especially for under $500. they’ll be going in my build. 
wiseco are also an exceptional brand. whatever brand you choose, make sure they use a low-silicon content forging. SRP uses high-silicon, which is bad for boosted setups.
as to the compression question, click here for more information on why compression ratio has nearly NOTHING to do with pre-boost power.
There is a company whose pistons we have been selling over the cp’s these days. They are made my a company called Mahle, which are to know to be the best in the world. They are primarily IRL/Indy car piston manufacturers, and im sure you guys know there isnt a more demanding sport than F1. They just realeased their line of honda pistons and are def. the cutting edge of pistons these days. They come with coated skirts and tops. The area around the valve reliefs is extremely beefy and im sure you know that is the weakest part of a piston. If you compare these to wiseco/JE there is a huge difference in that area. Also, the material they use for the wristpins comes from germany, which is a higher quality material than what the domestic companies use. We are doing a shortblock for a Hotrod class car using these pistons, which is looking to be very promising. Best part is we sell em right around the cost of the cp’s
He had to put in 6-7 degrees mroe timing on the low CR setup to get roughly the same power? damn. that’s alot of timnig… I wonder what his total timnig for both setups was…
yeah from what i heard the cp’s and weisco’s are the brands to choose from. I just needed people’s personal preference and what they are currently running. I’m thinking about weisco, but they both have about the same price range. I’ve seen some talk about mahle, but I’ll need more than one person to vouch for them before I spend my money on it. I think I’ll end up going with a higher comp like 9\5\1 just to make it a little stronger with less timing. I’ve seen that graph before, but I never really saw how much timing was involved. I’m going to be running 402s, so I don’t need anymore timing adjustments than I’m already going to have. It will be a while before I boost anyway. Still looking for more comments.
Most of the piston companies are good. I truly believe not one piston company is better than the other. Just look at who’s using them and which is being used by the most by the racers. I think its all preference in which pistons to choose.
We use ARIAS in all our race engines. The consistency of ARIAS has been good compared to others we’ve used. The clearance and weights are exact everytime. Just look at who’s using ARIAS, so you know its good reliable piston company.
Honestly…not the way I would weigh my decision.
The racers that run these pistons get them for free…they are sponsored. if they could all be sponsored by the best piston manufacturer, Im sure they would.
To them, pistons are a standard part of the setup and not a tool in their 'bag 'o tricks" which is what makes most race teams successful.
When I do this…I will most likely be buying CP’s
I don’t know cause most people that just race need just race pistons. They wouldn’t consider it a daily driving thing. Just quick one-time performance. I mean for the long haul. Not all racers are like that, but that’s why I don’t let that influence my decision. I’m not a all time racer, so I need to hear people’s opinion that use their motors more like myself. street power and occasional track. I don’t hear too many bad things about arias anyway.
oh and what about the timing issue? Would you have more timing with less compression? Or does it vary from setup to setup? My timing is already going to be adjusted to smooth the idle for 402s.
J&E’s is a killer piston. The problem with them is not failure of the piston itsself, but the start up of the piston. They tend to give piston slap on start up until the motor comes to a warmer tem (ie: 160d) then it sounds and drives like any other factory piston.
Aria’s and Weisco I would put under the same umbrella. I have personally used both and have no issues with them what so ever.
I currently run the J&E/SRP piston in my built bottomend and I love them. No piston slap on startup, very reasonably priced, and can handle alot of power. i started using them when Jason (Stoopid) on honda-tech put me on to these. He has made over 500whp on them with no issues and this year I will be pretty damn close to that aswell. For the price its a good piston.
As long as its a forged piston then its a give or take type of deal. Forged piston give more room for error when tunning but they are not bullet proof. So any of the pistons mentioned will work and work well, but certain ones give piston slap on start up, which isn’t harmful. Just sounds like crap until she warms up. I have a set of J&E’s in my GN and they have held 700whp without failure for the last 4 years and i also have them in our 1300whp twin turbo GN and I have never had a piston failure ever with a J&E piston. From my experiences with all these forged pistons is, put more detail to tunning then piston selection because either one will work well for a boosted application. Good luck.
If you are getting aftermarket cams…please do not be worryinh about the idle…
As far as the timing goes, from that post…if you go with lower comp pistons(9:1), you will need to run MORE timing to reach the SAME amount of power in vacuum areas as you would running higher comp pistons(10:1) although with a proper tune you wouldnt notice much of a difference.
I’m not worried about it just don’t want to make the situation worse than it will be to begin with that’s all. I think I’ll go with a slightly higher compression than 9-1. I was going 9-1, but I don’t plan on boostin’ for a while so maybe it will help just a tad more with 9-5-1. Plus it still can be tuned out correctly anyways, so I think that’s what I’ll go with. Thanks for the help cause I was quite unsure of what comp to go with and the effects it will have on the motor. I’m still leaning towards weisco, cp, or arias pistons, but I still have a little more time before I go buy pistons and rods.
you can get any compression ratio you want–CP does custom pistons for $100 per piston. with rings it’s $123 each–still under 500 bones for pistons made for you and only you. pretty good deal.
want 9.2:1? go for it.
9.5? yep.
9.49720368:1? well you’re probably freakin mental, but they can do that too!
hehehe I want mine to look like PIE (i dont have the sybol for it but its like 3.18383736747329934934934030493584746783230248385835945 forever)
quite the dish…
ha! get it? dish like pie, but also dish on the piston for such low compression!
:uhoh: 
:run:
you wordsmith you! :giggle:
Not true at all. We personally know many of the PRO racers out there and most CHOOSE themselves what piston they want to use. Piston manufacturers don’t necessarily come up to all racers and give pistons away. Even in sponsorship situation, most of them still pay and just get a discount on the piston set themselves. So they are not free.
Anyways, back to the subject: We use 90% ARIAS in our race motors and they are just Off-the shelf pistons that can handle 700-850hp. I’m sure other off-the shelf pistons from other manufacturers are just the same. Point is, off-the shelf parts handle the power, whether its your street Daily Driven setup or a full race car motor.