Say you were going to build a 355 to run mainly NA but it might see a 75-100hp shot of juice. Do you think it is neccessary to use forged pistons? Think hypers would be sufficient? Discuss.....

 

I was told as far as NA was concerned, Hypers were okay but if you're thinking about juice forged is the way to go.. I'm sure if you're going to do Forced induction, probably forged as well.

 

It's just a discussion topic. Im wondering what everyone thinks.

 

Going to forged is cheap insurance. It is only about $250 more for them, so why not? There is no way I would put hyperpathetics back in my car.

 

Think of how well the hypers lasted in the car in stock form. Hypers are not bad by any means. Now if you were going to run a NA car hypers would do more than enough. Hell, the hypers will support 500hp easily. I'm sure that a 75hp shot is no problem for hypers either. Let's get hypothetical for a sec. Say you were on a tight budget on your rebuild. You have the chance at putting a larger cam in the car or using forged pistons in your new motor. Which do you choose?

 

I would feel more comfortable with a 500hp N/A engine with hypers than a 300hp N/A plus a 100 shot of nitrous. (400hp)

Why? Hypers are, relatively speaking; brittle.

 

Hypers last a long time in a stock LT1 and people spray 150hp on top of them no problem. Someone tell me a concrete reason.

 

Detonation. I went with forged because im running 11.5:1 compression. A forged piston can take detonation a lot better than a hyper. Not that a hyper piston is bad.

 

Ok good point. Keep them coming.

 

Aftermarker hypereutectics can take a good deal of power. They don't have a problem with big cylinder pressure... they have a problem with detonation, just as mentioned before.

The ringlands will go before anything else BUT too much detonation will take out a forging too. So how far do you want to push things?

I personally, have put 150hp shots of nitrous to KB hyper pistons without failure. Tune was good and everything was well sorted out before upping the shot. Ran a bracket engine like that for 2 seasons with nothing more than a valvespring change. YMMV.

If you want the extra security... Speed Pro, Diamond and SRP make a nice "budget" piston.

-Mindgame

 

100 shot of juice. KBs are a big name and seem to work well. This motor is going into an S10. I want to keep this motor as cheap as possible. I already have a Camaro I spending a ton of cash on. I need to keep the cost on the truck down. I want a budget rebuild on the bottom end that can take a 75-100 shot. It will be well tuned. Im going to do a home port job on the heads and a used LT4 hot cam. I just want a quick little truck. As long as it makes 300-320hp I wont mind. Im going to gut that thing.

 

For about 70$ more I can get a set of speed pro forged. Im leaning toward them.

 

You want a good reason?

Deciding to spray on hypereutectics on an existing motor is one thing.


Rebuilding that motor, KNOWING YOU ARE GOING TO SPRAY IT, and choosing Hypers when you could just as easily choose forged for very little extra money; is just plain dumb. Especially condsidering that the risk of getting accidental detonation with nitrous is so much higher than with other forms of supercharging.

Ask yourself this question...
If you build it with hypers, get into some detonation and have to rebuild it all OVER again... do you think you might be a bit aggravated?

 

The pistons are the best place to spend money in a budget bottom end. Mahle has a piston/ring combination that they sell that is excellent, and I highly recomend them.

bret

 

You should check into the "Mahle power pack" set. I just bought a set for less than $500 with "file to fit" rings and they come with coating on the skirts. This is the best price I've found forged pistons/ring combo and they are a full floater set-up.