looking at getting some new pistons. i can get a good deal on some venolia pistons. but they have to be custom made. i talked to a guy there and he was talking about how they have a full skirt design. i have some questions about this. one, will it clear the reluctor wheel. it will be on a stock stroke 5.3l boring it out to stock ls1 size. two, will it reduce horse power do to more drag? he said i can send him a stock piston and they would redesign the thing and make them stronger. then they add the full skirt to the new design. they also do use 2618 t61 alloy.

you can check out venolia.com . here is a quote from the site "A billet is heated to 800° F and forged
using a 3000 ton high speed mechanical forge press to produce a fine grain structure in the aluminum which yields the absolute strongest blank possible"

how would something like this compare to getting off the shelf wiseco pistons?

anybody got a 6.0 block and a 4.8l crank laying around? maybe if I'm doing custom I'll just build a 327 for the turbo.

 

IMO mahle coated forged pistons with teflon skirt coatings are the best. You dont need that skirt. The coating is exceptional for boosted apps. Make sure you engine builder sets up the skirt to wall clearance to .002 or less or it will knock. Factory specs are -.001/+.001. These pistons will not expand like other forged units. The .003-.004 clearance Mahle builds into the top of the piston. These pistons will take anything you throw at them.

 

Not everything, I have a broken one to prove it. They are good pistons though and I did go back with the same ones just .030 bigger.

 

Wiseco is top notch, off the shelf is good for well over 1K HP

 

the venolia guy said the coating is not needed for daily driving with the full skirt. their suppose to be some top notch pistons.

 

The coating helps with piston temps in boosted apps. That full skirt is not needed imo. Look at some pictures of LS7 pistons there is nothing to them.

 

i think it may had some to do with keeping it quiet.

 

Not the teflon side coating. The entire piston is coated to help with heat and expansion. I didn't explain that properly.

 

oh, i was talking about about the full skirt. i'm looking at the manley's also now. they look good.

 

I put diamonds in mine. They are not coated and do not make any noise. They are set up for .004 side clearance.