well search functions aren't working right now, so i'll just ask.

I'm planning to do a high compression D-series in the spring and I've had my eye on "Nippon Racing" PM7 pistons, being sold by guit-guit on ebay. I'm wondering about the quality of these pistons? There's a kit for them with the pistons, rod bearings, main bearings, wrist pins, and multi-layer head gasket for about $239. I'm wondering if I should aim at this one for when I start getting ready to do the build? I can't find much, nor know anybody, with information on good brands.

here's the actual sale: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...ZWDVW

What do you think? And I'm planning to do a basic rebuild of the engine with rehoning before I put the pistons in, hopefully that's enough for the 11.5-12.9:1 ratio this is advertised as. It's either this or I get P29 OEM from ebay then put together a rebuild set.

 

I have the nippon pr3 pistons in my lsvtec. I have about 10k on my motor and it still runs strong

 

They're the most commonly used piston in the high output n/a motors on D-Series.org.

OEM Honda bearings and head gaskets.

 

i don't have any opinion on the pistons, but guit-guit tends to ship very slowly. it took him 25 days after an instant payment to get an item mailed. not to my door, to his post office - it was postmarked 25 days after i paid. not saying you shouldn't buy from him, as his prices are good, and my item was in near-perfect condition (used part), but it does take a while to get your stuff.

seems to be a common complaint in his feedback, too.

 

i got the same story with him like you. damn slow shipping. i needed pistons badly so i have payed for express but receive pistons in 3 weeks

 

Same here, It took him 2 months to finaly get them to my house.

 

I've always gotten my stuff in a timely manner. He has pretty good customer service, too.

 

so i should buy the pistons only but buy the HG and bearings from honda? confused about headgasket though, does honda provide a multilayer headgasket? I've been reading about pm7 having too high of a compression for 91 octane (in california, it's all we got) so I was thinking to get a 2-3 layer headgasket to lower the compression (and keep my piston away from pinging and meeting my valves)

oh and thanks for the heads up on his shipping. think i'd be better off grabbing some used oem p29's?

 

Yes, OEM Honda head gaskets are MLS (multi layer steel) and D16Z/Y head gaskets are already three layer. If you want to lower your compression with a head gasket you'll need to spend bank on a Cometic, Apex, or GReddy HG that's thicker than stock. If you go that route, it'd be a smart idea to order two at once so if you have a HG blow out you don't have to wait for the shipping. Get a set of ARP head studs while you're at it. They're stronger and re-usable.

You can use the aftermarket bearings, a lot of people do. Just make sure that you Plastigage for clearances. The biggest problem with one-size-fits-most bearings is that you can't really blueprint your clearances without doing machine work...at which point it's cheaper and more practical to just use the correct size bearings in the first place.

OEM Honda P29s are notorious for the top ring land breaking. Nippon pistons have moved the top ring land down just enough to prevent this from happening. They're also supposed to support higher horsepower than OEM pistons. The choice is yours. You can either get it now or you get it right.

 

okay, I guess that answers some questions. There's a p29 sale on ebay i've been watching, so was wondering if I should just let it slide or not. how much bank are we talking for these HG from the major name brands? and how much are the arp headstuds?

 

I should really go look it up, but I'm remembering that they're in the $120-180 range. As long as you have the motor dyno tuned before you run it at all, you should be fine with 12:1 on our shitty 91 octane.

Personally, I'm using Nippon pistons in my motor.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 91SiZ6 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I should really go look it up, but I'm remembering that they're in the $120-180 range. As long as you have the motor dyno tuned before you run it at all, you should be fine with 12:1 on our shitty 91 octane.

Personally, I'm using Nippon pistons in my motor.</TD></TR></TABLE>
you can get cometic head gasket for d16 on ebay for $77
So... how would my car do if I do the rebuild in hayward, then drive it down to san jose? (~30 miles) I'm probably going to have DSR tune it.

 

Have it towed. Yes, it's expensive but the alternative is screwing up your brand new motor.

You can use octane booster but then your motor will be tuned for whatever that ends up being instead of for 91. You also don't want to baby a fresh build.

Some break-in articles for you to read;
http://importbuilders.com/breakinarticle.htm
http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

 

confusing... well I have until late spring to get this all together... i can always just go to DNR after the rebuild, they're roughly 2 miles away from my house. the precautions to drive a car to the dyno are alot, haha. thanks for all the help, this'll give me alot to think about. do you think a aftermarket multilayer hg will be enough to prevent stock valves from meeting my pistons? that and is a skunk2 stage 1 cam good enough for a high compression build?

 

Doing things right usually means doing them the hard way. :D

Your piston to valve clearance will be fine with a stock headgasket. One thing to keep in mind with high compression though is that you're going to have a bitch of a time passing smog. I'd want at least a Crower Stage 2 for that build, if you plan on getting head work get a Stage 3 and hold on. I have the Comp Cams/Zex 59300 cam with 9.5:1 compression and that little fvcker screams.

 

I had a little issue with guit guit about timely delivery, besides that no problems

 

yeah... uh how do high compression engines pass smog? it's supposed to be a street car, that is the biggest concern i had, haha. Kind of determines if I go NA or turbo. If it's not possible i might have to go the greddy turbo kit way Yeah I was reading about stage 2, which involves new valves and springs Looks like guit-guit isn't time frame friendly.

 

They pass with either really good tuning or just plain illegally.

If you can find another supplier of Nippon pistons, feel free to use them. I've never had anything but good dealings with guit-guit out of four transactions. And the reason why I really like him is that he was going to replace my set of Nippon P28s free of charge even though I didn't buy them directly from him. Two weeks is fairly standard shipping time. ****, I remember when standard shipping was 4-6 weeks. People just get too damned antsy these days. If you need it tomorrow or three days from now, you should just go to a local performance store and pay full price for item-x.

 

haha, i'd still buy from him if i do it. just because money &gt; my time IMO. I've grown patient since starting car tuning, setbacks and the amount of time it takes to do stuff makes you patient IMO. i guess i'll ask around who can make me a smog legal setting before i start the build. VAFC ftw, haha. gotta do a obd-1 conversion too, just learned the hard way that obd2b pwns my VAFC by adjusting every few days to make it stock again

 

a little birdy told me that RSmachines oddly sized honda pistons (84mm itr ect) are nippons and everyone raves about RS..

dont quote me, jsut passing the word.

 

that's pretty big 0.0
i'll probably double check that rumor, although I hear nothing but good things about nippon from here and from d-series.org

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jtchinoy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">that's pretty big 0.0
i'll probably double check that rumor, although I hear nothing but good things about nippon from here and from d-series.org</TD></TR></TABLE>

not saying either one is "****" hell ill be running them soon. im jsut saying the rumor is nippon=rsmachine

 

oh haha ok

 

I bought a set of nippon b series turbo pistons from guit guit..i got them..they took a little over three weeks but i got them..so i f you want pistons..go thru guit guit performance..just don't expect any EXPRESS delivery....

 

I wouldn't plan to run anything higher than 11.5:1 on stock hypereutectic cast pistons, especially with the limited tuning you have with the single camshaft. Other than that they are made up of the same materials as OEM pistons, i'm unsure of the quality of the piston (I.E. the quality of the cast and distribution of it's silicon content).