Moreover, and a huge bonus, the forged piston's added thickness, particularly in the crown, is used by these builders to custom configure the piston even further. 106 months. Hi guys, I've searched and read any forged piston thread I could find, but I'm trying to get a sense of how many miles can be expected out of a build with each of these pistons at say, stage 2 or stage 2+ numbers. Forged pistons are also easy to manufacture as there is no need for big, heavy and expensive casting equipment as employed in the manufacture of cast pistons. Another advantage to a forged piston is that they can be individually made to any custom size or specification without the high cost of casting. You can buy an entire "short block", which includes all those parts (castings) plus the block and some other bits, factory OEM shiny brand new, for probably $1800. Depending on allow and what typer of application the piston is designed for, forged pistons are suggested to be ran with a piston to wall clearance of .002" - .005" and sometimes even .006". A entire forged reciprocating set (pistons, crank, rods) is likely to be upwards of $3500 on a 4 cylinder boxer that I'm familiar with.
The choice between using a Cast, Hypereutectic or Forged piston is dictated by the application. For a street engine, I've found Keith Black hypereutectic pistons to be trouble-free; they don't slap when cold, are less prone to skirt scuffing, and save you some money as well. Back in the day forged pistons used to be ran with a piston to wall clearance between .008" - .010", so I believe we have come along way in piston design.
156 posts.
Forged pistons are great, except they require more piston-to-wall clearance and tend to be noisy at cold start as a result; I'd only use them under the same 6000+/nitrous situation mentioned above. Forged pistons have quickly become the choice of custom engine builders because they can be had very quickly, and in virtually any configuration desired -- even custom ordered. Kokkolanpoika. When building an engine for your muscle car, one decision is to use forged versus cast pistons. ... Stock and mildly tuned motors do well with traditional stock cast pistons and present no disadvantage in terms of power and performance. Image courtesy of matchity, on Flickr. Solid skirt forged pistons transmit a lot of heat from the crown into the skirts which is one reason for the bigger clearance. When you think about it, it is amazing that your pistons don’t end up as a molten pile of aluminum in your oil pan. Assuming everything being equal (properly built, proper tune, etc.
While domed pistons do offer a few benefits in terms of power expression via increased surface area, dished pistons can do the same thing with far less weight penalty. While most people know that forged pistons are stronger, I am not sure if everyone knows why.
But forged pistons are not just for professional racers.