I've read and read and read and read..

From what I've seen, everyone who has these pistons seems to be a happy customer. I've heard they're a little too small in diameter, and they sit a little low in the cylinders (or something like that).

But does ANYONE have any stories of these pistons taking a ****? Or any issues caused by using these pistons?

I've searched quite a bit and can't find anything negative. So if you have horror stories, post them here.

 

The only issues I can think of is from the older 75.0mm slugs, as they had a HUGE gap between the piston and cyl wall. Way more than even .004" you'd find in beat motor with worn sleevs & forged slugs.

The other issue would be the noise you get from them due to the extra wall clearance needed (a given for any turbo motor) and the weird compression height. I can't recall it off hand, but its considerable, and gives you low-mid 8's for compression ratio. Given the power they can take and low price, I'd have to say they are still worth it.

 

Kyle.

I know I rebuilt my turbo motor with oem components but given the time and money that you have, I'd go forged.

Thats just me. You know I'll help you either way.

 

The main problem is the piston to deck hieght. It puts alot more stress on teh top of the sleeves.

 

Still looking for some real problems.

These are all things I've read about, and yeah they're issues.. But I've never heard of anyone having them really screw up on them.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by KyleVA &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Still looking for some real problems.

These are all things I've read about, and yeah they're issues.. But I've never heard of anyone having them really screw up on them.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I have personally owned or tuned 3 setups. All are still running strong after 2 years of service. I am building another one for a little street warrior. The only bad i noticed was the excessive noise when really cold. But you learn to deal with it.

 

one thing i noticed with my build, is that i get some serious crankcase pressure when the slugs are cold, which initially caused some slight smoking from the turbo. Extra attention to crank case ventelation solved the blowby issue.

Its amazing how much abuse these pistons taken. Ive taken them to the point of shiney deposits on my spark plugs and they are still holding up to this day!

If i do it again i think i'll probably get another set of Vitaras. Why??? well i guess i could easily just get some forged pistons and call it a day, but for some sick perverse reason i think its cool to run Vitaras. I guess i'm thrifty like that.

 

i know this is an old thread but i figured i could ad to it. i recently built a vitara setup in my d16z6. and i was disappointed with the results. it made 197whp @ 15lbs. my stock motor made 230 @ 15 and with a smaller turbo and had well over 200k miles on it. i checked the compression and it was 170 across the board. i thought that was a little high compared to what other ppl have reported

 

You dropped a FULL COMPRESSION POINT and lost 30whp at 15psi. Dude, what did you expect??

The place these slugs shine is no ringland cracking between 250-450whp, UNLIKE stock pistons in the vast majority of cases. You were arguably on the edge with your previous pitons. Even if you had gone with Wiseco, you'd still have made under 200whp (less since the CR is a hair lower than Vitaras).

BTW the compression testers can vary be a few dozen psi at times. Don't use it to compair to other people, use it only to compair your 4 cylinders to each other.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by adrenajunky &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i know this is an old thread but i figured i could ad to it. i recently built a vitara setup in my d16z6. and i was disappointed with the results. it made 197whp @ 15lbs. my stock motor made 230 @ 15 and with a smaller turbo and had well over 200k miles on it. i checked the compression and it was 170 across the board. i thought that was a little high compared to what other ppl have reported</TD></TR></TABLE>

and did you retune? cause i noticed when i went from 10.8 to 8.3 that the low cr motor liked A LOT more timing and leaner a/f... anyhow, stop complaining get a bigger turbo and call it a day...

 

my vitara build made 210 @ 10 psi and that was with a stock head and stock cat.

 

So far i have built 6 motors with vitaras and have not had a single issue with any of them, one took a **** BUT it dropped a valve, i am gonna do a write up on the pistons with pics that came out of the motor as we made the most power with that one, 385hp. 2 years on that motor and they looked brand new other than carbon

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mrbsponge &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">So far i have built 6 motors with vitaras and have not had a single issue with any of them, one took a **** BUT it dropped a valve, i am gonna do a write up on the pistons with pics that came out of the motor as we made the most power with that one, 385hp. 2 years on that motor and they looked brand new other than carbon</TD></TR></TABLE>

im going to re tune next week. hoping to hit 300

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by adrenajunky &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i know this is an old thread but i figured i could ad to it. i recently built a vitara setup in my d16z6. and i was disappointed with the results. it made 197whp @ 15lbs. my stock motor made 230 @ 15 and with a smaller turbo and had well over 200k miles on it. i checked the compression and it was 170 across the board. i thought that was a little high compared to what other ppl have reported</TD></TR></TABLE>

you dropped compresion, you probably have a too big turbo, in any case yo see higher results. up the boost, richen the motor, get it back to stoch, the whole mod idea is to allow the motor to get more PSI/horsepower to support.

ie the pistons are just upgraded for support not specifically a power adder........like a better fuel pump it does'nt add horsepower by beingbolted on , it supplys more fuel so your motor can make more power reliably ie its a support item

 

anyways...
FJT makes custom length forged d16 i beams to level the vitara with the deck. i own a set, but have yet to see them. moving sucks

so the deck height is now a non issue

 

I built a Z6 bottom end for my del sol and i ended up cracking a ring land in two cly. I had about 5k on the block when this happend. I t was not the pistons fault, i had a bad coil in my dist. that i did not know about and it only acted up here and there but it ended up killing my motor. I however did not know it was the coil till i put a stock motor back in and had same problem and fixed it.

So my 40.00 coil cost me my 1,000 motor I do still belive they are good but not that good. IMO after having these pistons and hearing them run and so on i'd spend the money and get real forged pistons like everybody tells you to. but that my .02 cents.

hope it will help some peeps.

kevron

 

didnt really know what to expect. i made 200hp after tuning w/ the gt28 and that crapped out so i got a gt30 and tuned again and that made 197. the gt28 spooled up very fast, full boost @ 3500. but the 30 is not too much slower to spool. im gonna up the boost i was waiting for my 3bar map sensor to show up. that and my oil pump went so i had to change that. a ton of metal in the pickup and pan from the acl bearings. my oil looked like goldshclager.

 

Well crank the boost. Big turbos take longer for the initial spool, but after 10psi, 20psi is usually just 500rpm away.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by welfarepc &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">anyways...
FJT makes custom length forged d16 i beams to level the vitara with the deck. i own a set, but have yet to see them. moving sucks

so the deck height is now a non issue</TD></TR></TABLE>

how much are they ?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DaveF &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

how much are they ?</TD></TR></TABLE>
they're ~300 i think. you can get a hold of him on http://fjdistributors.com/index.php, and turbod16.com, he also sells them on ebay from time to time.

 

yeah thats the plan. but my oil light started coming on only at idle. so i figured oil pump. but i changed that and it didnt fix it. maybe something is clogged i have an extra pressure sensor im gonna swap to c if it fixes it while im waiting for myu oil pressure gauge

 

my guess is bearings

 

bout 2 years on mine. A little more noisy but no problems with 12k miles on a 50 trim 12psi. I wish i had money to retune.

 

vitaras are gay.. with the compression height being around 2.5mm shorter than stock it comes to about 7.2:1 compression in a z6. expect to loose about 25hp from stock pistons.

spend the extra 200bux and get some pistons that are actually right, its not worth it.

vitara's FTL

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JDogg &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">vitaras are gay.. with the compression height being around 2.5mm shorter than stock it comes to about 7.2:1 compression in a z6. expect to loose about 25hp from stock pistons.

spend the extra 200bux and get some pistons that are actually right, its not worth it.

vitara's FTL</TD></TR></TABLE>

Don't hate because someone can build a motor for half the price and smoke your ignorant ***.