into floating? I want to use these SpeedPro forged pistons but I don't have a rod furnace and don't want to half-*** it in a conventional oven.

 

haha, "rod furnace"?? half *** it, and use a normal oven? I've never even heard of a rod furnace... These aren't rocket surgery here. Toss your pins in your freezer, put your rods in your oven, lube the pins with clevite bearing guard (jam), and use gloves, push them together. Or get your machinist to do it for you. It's easy as pie.

No, I don't think you can convert, or it'd be not worth the hassle if you could.

 

If those pistons have the provisions to take the locks, then it would be the size of the small end of your rods that would make it a press fit or not.

 

I haven't purchased the rods yet. Can I get floating wrist pins and use them in any old piston? IE they're the same size as "press fit" pins?

 

the pistons need to be made for the retainers used with floating pins and will also work with pressed pins. the small end of the rod is what makes it pressed or floating. if your rod doesn't have a bushing your machine shop can put one in for you to use floating pins. if you have pistons made for floating pins you can use them with a pressed fit rod and have pressed pins with no extra work or expense, just leave the retainers out with the pressed pins. don't try to force pressed pins in or out without the proper tools and equipment.

 

I have these SpeedPro pistons, and I dont think they offered them in floating. So they wouldn't work even if I had bushed rods, since there's no room for a retainer clip.

 

I wouldn't sweat it, bushed probably isn't for you, you aren't planning on tearing down the motor annually are you?

vizard mentioned pressing them in at home using the method I mentioned, but I got my machinist to do it for me.

 

sorry but that cracked me up

 

No it's not a big deal, but I wanted to be able to assemble them easilly right away.
I don't want to pay a machinist to do something as stupid as hang slugs, ya know?

 

Vizard seems to say a lot of things that make a lot of people scratch their heads. I know people who have met him through the Mini racing crowd, and I've heard some interesting opinions.

The cost to press the pistons on is pretty minimal, usually on the order of a few dollars each.

 

And the cost to cut a lock ring groove at any competent machine shop is also negligible. Any mini boring head (like a System 3R) and square insert would make it cake - Just plain old boring work. Gundrilling the rod for pin oiling, boring, honing, pressing the bushing, and finish reaming it would be costly compared to a set of rods prepped for floaters and oil.