I have about 64 piston/rod pairs from various teardowns that I never did anything with. Most all are in very good condition. Called to have them seperated at a shop and got the following. $10/piston at the 'hot rod' shop, $7/pair (piston) at the machine shop downtown in Brockton and $5/piston at a place in friggin' RI. At the cheapest it's looking to be close to $500!! I swear this area sucks blue donkey ***** for anything to do with machine work.

For that cash I'd rather buy tools or a good torch and tank set-up. Can I do these damn things on a press with a torch? Oxy/act or propane? How damn hard is it? How big a press would be needed? Any tricks? Punch and die sizes? I'd like to get at least 27 good rods loose to start measuring and balancing a good set out.

 

Do you care if the piston is trashed in the process?

 

You can do it with an O/A setup, but yuo'll discolor the rods most likely...I'm not too fond of that. Since you have had them sitting around for sometime (at least long enopugh to have 8 rebuilds done) you probably aren't in an hurry to get them aprt...so look for machineshops going out of business, hit ebay, etc, and find the type the uses a heating element to heat'em up, it should come with a arbor type press and a few different dowels/inserts.

Basically lay to assembley in it, press the heat button, when the light goes on, pull the handle and out comes the pin...I've see the shop I use do a set in about 25 minutes, and thier SnapOn setup is 6 years older than Moses.

 

Would be nice is the pistons weren't trashed, but I can overlook it so long as the rods are fine.

8mike9, I don't want the rods discolored at all. Know the actual name of the oven/press the shops use? Any idea what they run? If it's close to $500 for a used one it may be worthwhile to look into it.

I also posted in the regional boards to see if anyone knows a cheaper place in the area.

Thanks guys!

 

If all you want to do is remove the pistons from the rods, there's a way to do it with stuff you can pick up at the hardware store for about $15.
The machine shop that I work with presses pins out cold.
The rods are heated or the pins can be chilled, or both, to press them in.
Anyhow, a piece of threaded rod, some nuts and washers, and two pieces of galvanized pipe can be used to press out the pins. It'll wreck your pistons, but in a lot of cases that happens when a shop does it too.
I wish I had graphics... I almost feel like drawing a picture and taking a pic with my camera and emailing it to you.
Should I explain or send a pic email? Let me know. I need to have some coffee... not feeling the least bit motivated now.

 

You're not going to find crap around here. It's the performance desert and whomsoever actually is in the business in south shore MA apparently likes to rape you. You don't even want to hear the amounts I was quoted for standard machine work on a block.