TahoeRick

I have two 900 HP supercharged 571 CI motors that I am rebuilding. Our machine shop has asked if we want to use Arias pistons instead of the JE pistons that these engines came with. The pros and cons are:
Arias pistons come completely anodized and the JE pistons only have a special coating on their skirts.
We can get the Arias pistons in 3 to 4 weeks and the JE pistons in 4 to 6 weeks. We can pay $680 to get the JE pistons in 10 days.

The motors have JE pistons in them now, they are full custom
(Keith Eickert Motors) pistons with the JE custom numbers on their bottoms. These pistons went 170 hours until now, and have to be replaced because of a pre ignition/heat/lean problem that caused damage to some of them. We think the culprit was bad fuel and clogged injectors and possibly an overheating incidence that was immediatly caught.

The boat was in storage for a minimum of 18 months and the fuel may have been low octane and 6 months old when it went into storage. Both motors had good compression checks - all between 115 and 110. Boat was driven with existing fuel ( BIG MISTAKE) and impeller on one engine went and engine overheated causing immediate electronic shutdown. Impellor replaced and boat used for 6 hours when excessive soot around one exhaust noticed. Compression check taken and 2 cyclinders down to 85 PSI. Leak down test taken and bad news...

Should I stay with the JE pistons because I can get an exact identical new set (and pay the extra charge.) of what has worked up to now, or go with the Arias because of their full coating on their pistons and their shorter delivery time?

I plan on going to Desert Storm at Lake Havasu 4/20 so I do need to keep this project on schedule...

Any advice will be appreciated!

Rick

mike tkach

iTrader: (3)

rick,i cant tell you what to do,buy i would pay for the j&e pistons,that way your balance job should not change,just send them 1 of your pistons.

TahoeRick

By the way, both of these engines have the top stuff in them. Callies Crank, Carrillo Rods, JE Pistons, KE Aluminum Heads, Dart Block, Blower Shop Blower. We are doing complete rebuilds/refreshing. We are sending oil and fuel pumps in to be rebuilt, at this point one BAM Super Cyborg transmission too. Lots of little minor things being redone too. Plus, we are adding O2 sensors to the headers and upgrading the EFI box and adding in knock sensors too.

TahoeRick

My opinion is to use what worked, the JE pistons. They have the specs on file of what is in our engines - we gave them the number on the bottoms of these full custom pistons.

I just wanted to see what you guys think. I value your opinions, some of you guys have decades of experience doing this...

jspeeddemon

Frequently use JE pistons, they are not any less or better than other 2618 material Forged pistons. Either will work well, as mentioned the Arias will be fine, check to see if the piston weights are close. It doesn't have to be exact, Nascar runs overbalance in their motors. Another words more bobweight in crank than actual weight of pistons rods, pins, rings, bearings.

MER Performance

The first thing to determine is; what are you seeing with wear, piston rocking, ring lang wear, compression ratio. Taking that you are, I guess 4.500 stroke, 6.535 rod, C.H. of 1.395. What is going on with that piston @ bottom dead center? I would question the design of skirt, ring stack and wrist pin wall thickness.
I am not going to tell you who to use, I will say: I have used CP / Carrillo, for 10 yrs now, and my engineer has corrected piston issues with other piston manufactures that I have, had come through the doors.
I wouldn't be sold on the piston coating from the manufacturer, you can address that afterwards.
Piston design, ring lang location, dish design and wrist pin size.

airbats801

In my experience je pistons seem to slap a bit more when they are cold over arias or say wiseco.


I've never actually heard a complaint with arias. If they can make the same piston faster, then I say why not.

ThisIsLivin

The big issue I see here is what are the comparable piston weights for balance and skirt designs for clearance. I've run both and have had good luck with both. I dropped a valve once on a motor that had Aries pistons, the piston stuffed the valve back into the head and only left a small mark and I was able to get home on 7 cylinders. Find out what the weight of the Aries pistons are compared to your JE's if they can be brought within spec and no clearance issues than no problem.

stevesxm

this isn't a cost issue. its a schedule issue. you have a part you can buy and know it will come out of the box, install directly and work. why take the chance with another piston that MIGHT need dif clearence, dif balance, dif ANYTHING that will take your schedule and turn it upside down. you have no complaints with what you had which the original builder liked enough to install.. never screw with anything that works...
pay the money and buy the originals.

TahoeRick

This is my opinion too. However, lots of really great opinions here! I am going to send this link to Brad Johnson of Pig iron racing and Tahoe speedboat Co. He is the person behind these rebuilds.