Pistons

forcefed6.4ford · Nov 2, 2011

No BS. Are these pistons reliable when the lips is removed and anodized?

jdgleason · Nov 2, 2011

I think they will. The new HD piston from mahle that we offer is much stouter. It has a thicker lip, and much more meat in the bowl. With being coated and all, I dont see why they wont be at least as reliable as any other piston on the market.

Heres a link to the thread.
http://powerstrokearmy.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8170

White_monster · Nov 2, 2011

These pistons are as reliable as they can be with the lips removed and with them being coated. There isn't an option for pistons other than stock unless you move into a forged piston and that brings other issues into the mix. How do I know there isn't any other pistons available? Well I called Mahle and asked, also called CP and a few other piston companies. Elite's new piston is a stock Ford piston that has been machined at Mahle to clean the bowl transitions up and change the lip profile but the piston itself starts out as a stock ford piston, don't believe me call Mahle and ask. According to Mahle the pistons are as good as they can be after being machined and coated but the pistons will continue to crack from stress due to the material and design they were originally engineered for. I'll expand on this later.

derrick36 · Nov 2, 2011

White_monster said:
These pistons are as reliable as they can be with the lips removed and with them being coated. There isn't an option for pistons other than stock unless you move into a forged piston and that brings other issues into the mix. How do I know there isn't any other pistons available? Well I called Mahle and asked, also called CP and a few other piston companies. Elite's new piston is a stock Ford piston that has been machined at Mahle to clean the bowl transitions up and change the lip profile but the piston itself starts out as a stock ford piston, don't believe me call Mahle and ask. According to Mahle the pistons are as good as they can be after being machined and coated but the pistons will continue to crack from stress due to the material and design they were originally engineered for. I'll expand on this later.

I'm confused now.

This is the opposite of what Elite is saying.

Elite said:
Hey guys! Here are some pictures of our new Heavy Duty 6.4 pistons. These are NOT a stock piston that has been machined. They are still a Mahle piston, but redesigned. This particular one is coated and has coated skirts as well. This coating is new and is a thermal barrier coating. These pistons have a couple cool features over the stockers. The fuel bowl is different in a couple ways.

First, the hump that is in the well of the bowl is much more "dome" shaped. This handles higher injection pressures much better.

The other piece to the bad boys is the lip of the fuel bowl. Youll notice its a little beefier, as well as the fact that it doesnt hang so far over the bowl. This should help prevent the cracking we have been seeing on some of the stockers.

These pistons are a lower compression piston as well. They take compression down to 16.5:1.

What am I missing?

White_monster · Nov 2, 2011

Call Mahle, that's what I did.

derrick36 · Nov 2, 2011

White_monster said:
Call Mahle, that's what I did.

I don't doubt your answer...
I'm curious about the second one I quoted.

White_monster · Nov 2, 2011

Well elite has the dome of the piston smoothed by Mahle, it's a good idea to do that cause sharp edges is were melting and cracks start. The lip of the bowl has been machined down to again reduce the sharp edge and hopefully reduce melting or hot spots from forming. The coating on the skirts is stock. The coating on top is like a ceramic, elite gets the coating done themselves and I'm not sure who does it for them.

derrick36 · Nov 2, 2011

White_monster said:
Well elite has the dome of the piston smoothed by Mahle, it's a good idea to do that cause sharp edges is were melting and cracks start. The lip of the bowl has been machined down to again reduce the sharp edge and hopefully reduce melting or hot spots from forming. The coating on the skirts is stock. The coating on top is like a ceramic, elite gets the coating done themselves and I'm not sure who does it for them.

Well you've certainly done your homework. I'm interested to see what Elite has to say about this.

bigrpowr · Nov 2, 2011

White_monster said:
Well elite has the dome of the piston smoothed by Mahle, it's a good idea to do that cause sharp edges is were melting and cracks start. The lip of the bowl has been machined down to again reduce the sharp edge and hopefully reduce melting or hot spots from forming. The coating on the skirts is stock. The coating on top is like a ceramic, elite gets the coating done themselves and I'm not sure who does it for them.

im not sure mahle gave you the whole story.

forcefed6.4ford · Nov 2, 2011

Care to elaborate?

White_monster · Nov 2, 2011

:whs:

jdgleason · Nov 2, 2011

Let me get some more information on this tomorrow and I will get back with you guys. What I meant about the new pistons is that it starts out life the way it is, it didnt have the ever living sh!t machined out of it.

forcefed6.4ford · Nov 2, 2011

Fair enough JD. Thanks Man.

derrick36 · Nov 2, 2011

jdgleason said:
Let me get some more information on this tomorrow and I will get back with you guys. What I meant about the new pistons is that it starts out life the way it is, it didnt have the ever living sh!t machined out of it.

So then it is an OEM ford piston machined to Elite's specs?

jdgleason · Nov 2, 2011

derrick36 said:
So then it is an OEM ford piston machined to Elite's specs?

We did not go through ford to get them. We went through mahle. If mahle is going to use this for new stock pistons, its an after thought from what Im told. I wasnt trying to mislead anyone at all. My biggest point was this was a newly designed piston, changed from the "stock" that all of us are used to seeing: with the pyramid in the bowl and thin protruding lip. New design, not the same piston altered.

Powerstroked162 · Nov 2, 2011

jdgleason said:
We did not go through ford to get them. We went through mahle. If mahle is going to use this for new stock pistons, its an after thought from what Im told. I wasnt trying to mislead anyone at all. My biggest point was this was a newly designed piston, changed from the "stock" that all of us are used to seeing: with the pyramid in the bowl and thin protruding lip. New design, not the same piston altered.

You mean, new bowl design. Still the same Mahle piston built off chitty ford specs.