Forged vs Hypereutectic
Yeah they cost more than hyper and sometimes have a little piston slap at cold start, but I would go forged all day long. I have them and have just a little slap in the morning but its gone in a mile or two.
Anyway, back to reality........ If you're going to buy pistons for ANY kind of serious build, buy forged. I run the stock hypers in mine, but it was strictly a BUDGET build, and I'm VERY careful with it despite what the numbers show.
90% of the motors out there are going to be exposed to careless/inexperienced tuners and careless/inexperienced owners. Forged is cheap insurance against that. If you're a performance enthusiast at all and don't demand OEM NVH standards, I don't see any downsides to them.
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Far as forged as killerz97 was saying there are serveral different materials pistons can be forged from and for a driver a 4032 will be quieter than a 2618 but stronger than a hypereutetic. Something like a Mahle Powerpak is a good bargain. What is the selection in nice hypereutetic pistons with a comparable ring package and such?
If spending the coin on a full build spend the coin for a little overkill it is almost always cheaper in the long run., once buying pistons I would go ahead and do a 6.0" aftermarket rod too, not a lot more cost than reconditioning stockers, get them bushed and assembly is easier than pressed like stock.
"middle ground" is pretty much not worthwhile I would only do as Pat did and refresh completely stock or go to something like a Mahle Powerpak and 6.0" rods basically nothing I would consider in between.
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Hyper- just means that the amount of silicon in the aluminum alloy is at a high level comparably.
all pistons have silicon in the alloy(for this argument). The way a piston is produced/manufactured has little to no difference in how much silicon content in the alloy is present. manufactures make pistons out of a few different alloys to produce difference results for very different purposes. Do i need to go into detail about this? no a piston/pissing contest needs not to exist. there are many builds that have pistons in them that really never needed to be in there, but also builds that didn't have a strong enough piston to do the work that was intended for them. Each build will have its very own specific need for types of building materials.
yes a good quality hyper-eutectic non forged piston can handle 450-500 hp, maybe more, if kept in the rpm range it was meant to handle; also if detonation is kept in check. Really, detonation is pretty much the number one cause of piston failures, so even a quality forged unit can be destroyed in a few races if left unmanageable.
The biggest question is...
How "high" is a high rpm build to you?
6500, 7000, 8000, 9500?
I'm guessing stock stroke?
Last edited by 96capricemgr; Oct 29, 2012 at 12:14 PM.
Last edited by 93Euphoria; Oct 29, 2012 at 07:05 PM.
You know if I said that 8 people would post about what an ******* I am........................
Not disagreeing with you one bit, just saying...........
bufmatmuslepants
You are right about what materials can handle BUT at the same time can you give us a list of all the aftermarket cast and hypereutetic pistons that are at least as nice as the stock LT1 pistons, same weight or lighter, same or better ring pack, good company so the machining tolerances are good?
Yeah you can buy gen 1 pistons cheap but far as an aftermarket hypereutetic piston light as stock with a comparable ringpack I don't know of any. On summit I found a Sealed power that had the metric ringpack BUY as best I could find searching the web it weighs 129grams more than a stock LT1 piston which is a LOT of additional load on the rods/bolts/bearings so there is a real argument to be made it is a step backwards durability wise. Those were $324, a few hundred more on a 4032 forged gets you a little overkill to grow with and provide a little insurance against tuning mistakes, a lighter piston that makes the rotating assembly more durable.............
If you don't want to spend the money on a decent entry level forged piston I would just stick with the stockers, they are reasonably light and have a nice ring package, nice and easy to balance the motor with them too
Not disagreeing with you one bit, just saying...........
bufmatmuslepants
You are right about what materials can handle BUT at the same time can you give us a list of all the aftermarket cast and hypereutetic pistons that are at least as nice as the stock LT1 pistons, same weight or lighter, same or better ring pack, good company so the machining tolerances are good?
Yeah you can buy gen 1 pistons cheap but far as an aftermarket hypereutetic piston light as stock with a comparable ringpack I don't know of any. On summit I found a Sealed power that had the metric ringpack BUY as best I could find searching the web it weighs 129grams more than a stock LT1 piston which is a LOT of additional load on the rods/bolts/bearings so there is a real argument to be made it is a step backwards durability wise. Those were $324, a few hundred more on a 4032 forged gets you a little overkill to grow with and provide a little insurance against tuning mistakes, a lighter piston that makes the rotating assembly more durable.............
If you don't want to spend the money on a decent entry level forged piston I would just stick with the stockers, they are reasonably light and have a nice ring package, nice and easy to balance the motor with them too







