Now for past month I have been doing research on piston options for my 85x87 gsr build. After researching piston specs and using compression calculator countless times I've narrowed it down to either cp x forged piston or arias. My car will be daily driven and run on e85. Now from my research I keep coming across high vs low silicon pistons, and have been told that low silicon wears more on a daily driven car. I really want the arias as they put me right at the compression range I want (with the cp being a little lower), but need to know if I would have any issues with these because they are low silicon. My block is also darton sleeved so I do not know if that changes anything. Thanks in advance for help.

 

In my opinion

Cp and je are high end pistons

Wiseco good and affordable

Arias good and affordable

If you can afford CP go CP or JE.

Compression wise a few decimal points here and there will not matter.

You never told us what compression the pistons are going to be. E85 as a daily means that you are going to have to be picky about what brand and location you will use for your e85 fill up. From gas station to gas station and Brand we have found the e85 to be fairly inconsistent.

Proper installation is more important then the brand of pistons.

 

12.7:1-13.2:1 compression and yes will be using the same station for e85. Je are in the heavier end so that's why my final options being cp and arias.

 

what about supertech forged or cast pistons

 

Arias pistons are the only piston we use. Their clearances are always dead on. We have used Arias piston with darton sleeves countless times to great success. Another thing to look at is custom pistons from arias with anodized coating, perfection for E85 use. Cp I don't have any problems with they are good pistons with good attention to detail but when machining the block we have found that when measuring each piston they will be a bit different also they may vary in weight. As far as quality in a daily we have arias pistons in some cars that have been beat on for years and they are still rocking and rolling perfectly. My professional opinion go with Arias, they will not disappoint you. For piece of mind give Elmer from arias a call and discuss any concerns and question ,they have an amazing staff, we have been dealing with them for since 2002 and have never had issues.

 

Can they do the coating on a shelf piston that they carry?

 

They can do moly sides and ceramic tops on off the shelf pistons but for anodized coating they can only do it to custom pistons .

 

I have and will always use CP. Never had any issues or mis matched pistons. And the team there is incredible to deal with whenever I have questions or want to try something new.

 

Everyone has their preferred manufacturer like I said cp is definitely a good piston and we have used them when customers supply them.we exclusively use arias because of their staff and great product.those two manufacturers are the only choices you should be looking at.best advice would be look at your machine shop for their preference since they will be doing the work.

 

Last time I checked CP and JE are the same company, just JE is a more "off the shelf" piston whereas CP has more custom options available. They are made out of the same manufacturing plant.

 

Maybe you mean JE and Wiseco? They are both owned by Dover.


http://www.pmi-brands.com/AboutUs.aspx


Cp is owned by an Austrian Company

http://www.pankl.com/Company-structure.394.0.html

 

^^^ YES. Thanks for the correction.

I found that out when I was building the 383 in my chevelle and the JE and Wiseco prices were leaps and bounds different for the same product. Wiseco just has more customs apps.

Thanks

 

I would say if u use cp pistons to run a bit more ptw than they rcommend but since you are going to run e85 and not gasoline thermal expansion might not be as great. Just food for thought nom nom nom...