Hey everybody let me start by saying this message board has been really useful to me. Im helping a friend build his 63 valiant 225 auto in which I know nothing about-- sorry guys I do Fords. I'm wondering about pistons, I've seen people mention silvolite pistons but I've checked everywhere and cant find any. Anyone know where to get good quality pistons without using 2.2's cause we really werent lookin to change rods. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Silvolite and Enginetech both make cast replacement pistons for the SL6.
I have used lots of Engintech pistons and they work well for street performance.
http://www.slantsix.org/articles/hrm-sl ... ov-pg5.jpg
DD

I got a .060 cast piston from PAW. I forget the brand name. I was a little worried but they measured exactly the same for all the pistons. They were very inexpensive.. around $10.00 a piston and they look to be well made. I guess I'll see how well they perform soon.

_________________

65' Dart. A work in progress..
______________________
Joe

thanks for the advice guys it helped me alot on where to find them. I'm considering a small turbo setup, ya think either of the pistons mentioned would hold up to say 8-10psi and live on the street. I do have some turbo knowledge, I've made my own kit for my 5.0, this will be my first stab at a carb vehicle-hehe

If you go to google.com, type Keith Black, and then click on "I'm Feeling Lucky", it will take you right to the KB Silverlite website.

_________________
Gilly

1960 Dodge Pioneer
"Long Rod" /6, A833 Pistol grip Hurst
8 3/4" w/Suregrip and 3:91's
Still have more parts in boxes than on the car....

I posted this question on .com as well. I'm sure you've all seen it already, but....

What would happen if you used the 2.2 pistons with the 225 rods????

Could it work with some milling on the deck and head?

I'm just grasping at forged piston options. Somebody tell me I'm crazy and I'll stop.

_________________
Grip it and rip it

ya know thats a pretty good question, could be an interesting venture

You can put 2.2 pistons on 225 rods. You just need to weld and offset grind the crank for a 4.5" stroke. Doc has a great article on the subject. You can get up to 260 ci with this combo.

_________________
Gilly

1960 Dodge Pioneer
"Long Rod" /6, A833 Pistol grip Hurst
8 3/4" w/Suregrip and 3:91's
Still have more parts in boxes than on the car....

I would recommend forged pistons for any turbo setup over 5psi. Why? You may get away with 8-10psi for a while on cast pistons, but your engine is a ticking bomb. The second you get some bad gas and go lean, or anything else goes wrong under boost, you hear a sickening thud as pistons shatter into lots of little pieces. There goes your block and any expensive machine work you had done to it.

A forged piston on the other hand will not only handle *lots* of boost, but is very forgiving in pre-ignition/detonation situations. They will simply melt on the top, maybe all the way through (ever heard of "ventilating" a piston?), but will not shatter or otherwise destroy your engine.

Also, please stay away from hyper-pathetic pistons. They are OK in a N/A situation I guess, but in a blown/sprayed engine you will quickly realize how much they suck. The damn things will start to *flake* on top and otherwise exhibit undesirable behavior. They will not tolerate as much boost as a forged piston and aren't much better than a cast piston when it comes to shattering.

Oh so true...
It is sad that the SL6 "off the shelf" forged piston availability is so bad right now.
Custom forged pistons or hunt around for some old stock units, these are the only options I know of currently.
DD

Say... what's the chances of getting a group purchase going on custom forged pistons? The Ford 4cyl turbo boys did this not too long ago and it was a success. The pistons they got were from Diamond Pistons (www.diamondracing.net). We would have to get a certain minimum number of people involved but if we could do it we would have forged pistons available from now on.

What do you think?

Hey you can count me in on that! Anything to get better parts cheaper I'm game. Anyone else?

There are a handful of unproven options that combine extra long rods with import pistons. The Toyota 3SGTE pistons are probably the best bet as they have a bore very close to the slant six's and the most compression height of any of the import pistons in that size. However, these pistons all have low compression heights that either require custom rods, 198 rods and a lot of milling and decking, or some truly screwball tricks with offset grinding the journals undersized and running Mitsubishi Eclipse connecting rods to get an acceptable amount of compression. Slant sixes have a huge amount of compression height compared to modern engine designs, making newer pistons swaps tricky.

_________________
"Mad Scientist" Matt Cramer
'66 Dart - turbocharged 225
My blog - Mad Scientist Matt's Lair

Well I'm sure there are a few options for piston/rod swaps, but I was tryin to figure out the best piston using factory 225 rods. Thanks for the input though-I appreciate everyones advice.

Hi all I am new here, and wanted to say hi.

Dang Shiftless You are all over the place! Turboford, here, the cad board, I think I saw you on a pontiac board too. Man you get around! By the way this is Sctur601 from turboford.

Anyways, I am waiting for a responce for actual pricing from Diamond pistons for a slant. They told me they would probably be in the $400 range for stock type forged pistons, but could cut the cost with some kind of group buy. higher pin heights and custom tops would be more and not included in any type of group buy.