Well, the 408 i bought had some diamond pistons that are too small, and 1 had whacked the reluctor wheel and cracked a pin boss. Anyways, i am in needs of pistons, and was wondering what you guys on a budget are using? I looked at wiseco today, and they do sell a 4.035" piston, since my block is at 4.031" bore size right now, $880 bucks from them. Diamond pistons jump from 4.030" to 4.060", and Autotec pistons seem okay, but dont have the dish i am wanting, and would have to machine some for me at a higher price. Are Mahle motorsports any good for boost? Anyways, i am also thinking of just taking the stroker crank and rods, and just use my ls2 block and some 4.005" pistons instead of the lq4 block . You guys think a aluminum block will hold 800-900 hp in a trailblazer ss? Sorry for the long rant

 

Sell the trailblazer, buy a Kia. Run the LS2 as is. It'll take it, in The mean time build a forged short block.

 

Cant sell it, the bottom end knocks. I should have bought a g8 gt instead! Oh well, i kind of like driving the tbss though.

 

I had real good luck with mahle pistons in my old motor

 

Manley, Wiseco, Mahle, Ross, CP or JE.

I wouldn't buy or use a Diamond piston if it was the last piston left on the face of the earth.

 

That bad? Bad luck, fitment issues? Im curious as to why? Diamond is local to me, and thompson automotive uses them exclusively (the machine shop/builder of ls engines).

 

If anything use a 2618

 

I would like an answer on the Diamond piston as well, thought they where a "choice" product. I like Mahle as well for price and performance.

 

The Mahle are not a 2618 forging are they?

 

Most of the Mahles are 4032, but they do make a handful of 2618 pistons as well....mostly with more dish for boost builds!

 

We run more Wiseco than anything because they offer features standard that you have to pay extra for with their competitors, such as the steel top and napier 2nd ringset, coated skirts, etc. They also utilize a multi-fit valve pocket so you can run any head that fits in the bore size, without needing one piston for a cathedral head and another for LS3's, etc. They also have one of the thickest top ringlands available without going custom, which helps on the power-adder combos. And lastly, their service is very hard to beat! All of that for a good bit under $800 on their shelf-stock line-up!

 

Ill never run mahle pistons again....horrible customer service, and have had bad luck with thei products. I also got a mis-matched set of pistons, one piston was 7 thousandths bigger than the rest.

 

Wow thats horrible! I just put an engine together and they were all within 5 ten thousands

 

+1

I normally like Wiseco, JE, or KB Icon's. Also like Diamonds but would like to know why such negative response from Martin.

edit: What is everyones opinions on TRW's? They've been around for ages but you dont hear about them much.

 

Sorry guys, I may be a bit opinionated if you can't tell already but we've just had really bad issues in the past.

Customer service, not doing what they say they would...etc. etc. etc.

I'm with Texas Speed though, we order more Wiseco than anything because of exactly what TSP described. They have AWESOME customer service, have a huge off the shelf product selection along with inventory and we even had a mishap with a set of custom pistons that was their fault and instead of like most companies who won't take back a set of custom one off pistons they ate the cost and sent us the RIGHT set very quickly.

You can't beat customer service like that.

 

That's what I did

 

Diamond sent me the wrong wrist pins, then took another month to receive the right ones.

 

Subscribed.

 

Wiseco's here.

 

Any vendors want to give me a price on wiseco pistons? i need either a 4.035" piston to fit in my lq4 bored block (4.031"). Or a 4.005" piston in the -20cc inverted dome area that will give me like 9:1 compression with ls9 gaskets and either 317 or 243 heads (have both) for my LS2. This has 6.125" rods and 4"stroke crank. Thanks