I pulled these pistons out of an engine a few years back to use the block for a different project, but never really thought much about them. I assumed they were crappy generic rebuild pistons, which they could very well be. The engine only had about 8000 miles on it before I tore it down for a 383 build. They seem to be in pretty good shape and show very minimal wear. I'm building a budget engine right now so that's why these sparked my interest. I've seen similar pistons to these come out of other motors, but they have valve reliefs.

My question is if anyone has seen or worked with a piston similar to this or has an idea of what they are. I'm away from home right now, so I don't have them to try and find some numbers to help I.D. them. I'm guessing they are just a plain cast piston, but I really don't know much about them at all.

 

Any part numbers on them?

 

No, unfortunately I don't. I'm down at school right now, so I can't look at them. I could maybe get somebody at home to get me some part numbers. Otherwise I'll have to wait about a week and a half until I get home.

 

That looks like a pretty deep dish to them... Low compression. I would expect aftermarket ones to have a part number somewhere. Factory ones should too, really. You can always cc the dish and see. If you can, measure the compression height.

 

Ya, I was thinking the same thing about the dish. I'm hoping to find part numbers, cc the dish, and measure compression height the next time I'm home. I was just curious if someone has seen something like these before.

 

I've seen ALOTTA low compression cast pistons more or less like that over the years.

Looks to me like "cheeeeeeep crappy generic rebuilder pistons" is an accurate identification.

I sure wouldn't keep em around for anything. They'd be in the trash with the used gaskets. Doesn't matter how "new" they are. Somebody devalued some perfectly good chinesium when they cast it into those.

 

how do you "devalue "chinesium?exactly

 

Haha ya, I always figured they were cheap low compression rebuild pistons, but hadn't seen them around anywhere else myself. Maybe ill cut one up and throw it on the optical spectrometer in the lab and figure out what exactly alloy "chinesium" is.

 

You take perfectly good chinesium, that you could maybe make something USEFUL out of ... like .... toys, and instead, make things like ...... pistons .... out of it. At which point, all it's good for, is throwing in the trash. Can't even play with it any more.