aftermarket pistons

Was looking for some opinions and options on pistons for my pulling truck. I looked around but haven't had much luck finding many besides arias. It is a mechanical 7.3, gonna run it with at least a 3.0 turbo. I didn't quite get it done to run it this season so I want to upgrade the pistons this winter so I don't have to worry about one coming apart goin down the track.

Matt

Get with Swamps, they might have a solution for you :thumbsup:

sent from somewhere in the country

I think you should get some flat tops :thumbup:

Is this for a puller/race build or a DD? Are you guys talking about forged aftermarket pistons? I thought they didn't have the steel insert and won't live in a DD.

the first post said PULLING truck

skav said:

Is this for a puller/race build or a DD? Are you guys talking about forged aftermarket pistons? I thought they didn't have the steel insert and won't live in a DD.

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The forged aluminum pistons shouldn't be used for a DD b/c of reliability issues with the rings/ring grooves due to having no steel insert.

Swamps is building some steel pistons for the 7.3L now. I'm not sure if they are ready to be released yet, but they should be stronger than the forged aluminum pistons and can be run with tighter piston to cylinder wall tolerances, but they are a little heavier than stock Mahle pistons. For that reason, I think Swamps said they wouldn't recommend using the steel pistons in a DD either.

Now, this thread is for a full on pulling truck that is mechanically injected, so if Swamps has their pistons ready or want to test them, that would probably be an awesome route.

Never really looked into pistons much, when I built the engine 5 yrs ago stockers seemed to do fine. But this pump having an unlimited gov on it has had me thinking, one broken axle etc. and no good. I know wipeout had arias listed and the price wasn't to bad but I looked around and didn't find much on mahle's or ross's.

Matt

Ross has good racing application pistons fwiw. The problem I have seen with some pistons with a keystone ring is the ring end gap becoming out of spec and the rings beating against the landing...eventually causing a piston failure. This is more a genearlized statement than actually having to pertain to your build, but if you went with a steel forged piston you might not run into that issue as strokin'tatsch said in the previous post.

Does a number of the OTR truck engines now run steel pistons. I could have sworn I watched a entire tech video on the subject.

I'd call Ross. They made a custom set for are late model engine with an odd deck height and stroke. May be able to make a set? Don't remember the price difference right of hand.

Sent from my x2 somewhere

Yep, depends on what brand but most are a forged steel. Some also have aluminum skirts and forged steel crown.

A steel piston while stronger for sure is gonna weight a good bit more as well. I wonder how the trade offs look from a performance stand point. It should be interesting to see what data Swamps can pull up with the engine dyno and all. Some back to back testing will be interesting.

I know of 2 mech trucks getting ross pistons and price is not terrible.

STROKIN N STYLE said:

Get with Swamps, they might have a solution for you :thumbsup:

sent from somewhere in the country

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X2 on the Swamps Pistons.
http://www.swampsdiesel.com/site/steel_forged.html

Im just worried about weight with swamps. I wonder how they would compare to a forged aluminum weight wise. Im not looking for 6000 rpms but 5000 ish, yea. I take it not to many have done much beside stockers.

Several mechanical trucks are running J&E pistons... but if you call J&E and talk to them about pistons for a 7.3L PSD then they might think you are loony....

Aluminum pistons with a hard anodize coat seem to do the trick on mechanical motors - if I was running a CR then I would be looking at something with a steel top at a minimum. Combustion chamber design is critically important to power production - do your research on this to decide what you want to do.

WOP was running a set of forged Mahles in the Lightning, so that is an option as well.

I have a question, and somebody please tell me if I'm a complete idiot for not knowing this, but is Swamp's able to machine an oil gallery in the steel pistons?
Just something that crossed my mind as being a challenge.

Hotrodtractor said:

Several mechanical trucks are running J&E pistons... but if you call J&E and talk to them about pistons for a 7.3L PSD then they might think you are loony....

Aluminum pistons with a hard anodize coat seem to do the trick on mechanical motors - if I was running a CR then I would be looking at something with a steel top at a minimum. Combustion chamber design is critically important to power production - do your research on this to decide what you want to do.

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Well lets hear it, I've heard different thoughs on bowl design and spray patterns, deep and narrow vs's wide and shallow bowls. Also removing the lip of the bowl. Not calling you out but asking your opinion.

IDP said:

Well lets hear it, I've heard different thoughs on bowl design and spray patterns, deep and narrow vs's wide and shallow bowls. Also removing the lip of the bowl. Not calling you out but asking your opinion.

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Generally speaking I'm a wide and shallow bowl guy - but there is so much of a balance between tuning philosophy, injector spray pattern, and bowl design that its impossible to talk about one without the rest. And to further add complication different tuning philosophies apply to different goals. Like I say do the research and make your own decision based on what you want to do with the truck. Specifics like this for such a specialized app I'd rather not discuss on a forum - there are some things that it takes a long time and a lot of money to discover.