Piston choice?

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PRattenbury

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Jan 28, 2007
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Well, I'm at the point now where I need to make a choice for pistons. I like to get as much input as I can when making choices I know very little about. My truck will be a driver. I'll be running a cam that would require fly cutting stock pistons for valve clearance. My pump timing will be set at 24 degrees. My injectors are DDP Stage 4. The person building my engine (whom I obviously trust), has said to use stock pistons would be quite expensive by the time everything's said and done. Pistons themselves are more expensive, and machine work for fly cutting adds to cost. An option to the stock piston is the Mahle pistons, which would be less expensive to use. I am all for the less expensive option, but I wonder if I am sacrificing quality or anything by doing so. One thing for sure, I want to do this once, and do it right. So, I'd like to hear what you have to say. :thankyou2:
 
There are a couple of aftermarket cams that donot require any fly cutting of the pistons. I would use the stock pistons, however the marine engine pistons from Cummins are supposed to be stronger. Just my .02. Thanks Steve B.
 
Smokem said:
Mahle pistons would be a good choice, but there are 2 things wrong that you listed for a "driver" setup. A cam that requires fly-cutting the pistons will not be street friendly spooling a large single, but possibly a set of twins. Also 24* of timing advance, that is a little high for daily street use, it depends on which injection pump you choose to run.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'll be running Industrial Injection towing twins and a Dragon Flow pump.
 
What EX housings are used on the PS62 and the K31 in that setup?
 
Streetability is a pretty broad term. I'm willing to make some sacrifices for more power. The Dragon Flow is a 13mm pump, and doesn't really have any basis on stock pumps to my knowledge.
 
Not a bad idea. I see you run the same injectors. One of the 2 choices offered me is stock pistons for a 215hp engine. Is that what you have? Does the spray pattern work well with repect to the bowl?
 
When I had the head fire-ringed, I noticed the spray pattern was outside the bowl. But I was runnin around 24* timing. I talked to Lenny, he said you don't want to run more than 20* with these injectors.
Ryan
 
The OEM pistons are Mahle. At least they used to be. I used to haul parts for Cummins, and picked up Mahle pistons [in Michigan] on a regular basis. I don't know if they're still using them.
 
I wouldn't be scared to use Mahle pistons at all. I haven't heard anyone complain that Mahle's Cummins pistons broke in half yet.

brnaodn.
 
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