Forged pistons, silicon content and sidewall clearance

[Rick Frey]

At 02:59 PM 8/2/2003 -0500, mgeoghega@radford.edu wrote:
>I have been doing some research on forged pistons lately. Does anyone here run
>them? If so, what kind and what kind of sidewall clearence do you run?

This info or a discussion would be of great interest to me as
well.  Hopefully someone with real world experience will have time to chime in.

Here's what I've learned from this list.

1.  Don't go w/ forged pistons unless you really need them.  Hi tech cast
pistons are very good.  What does that mean for a Sr20de(t)?  Probably only
if you want more that 400 hp or so, or maybe doing some serious road racing
where things get seriously heat soaked.

2.  Oil squirters that cool the pistons are very good.

3.  Hi Tech coatings can dramatically reduce the amount of heat absorbed by
the piston.  Here is where I'd love to hear some discussion as to how much
tighter tolerances can be achieved w/ coatings.   This knowledge requires
valuable real life, I've done it, type of data.  A more generic discussion
would be cool so the knowledge could be applied to projects beyond an SR motor.

TIA,

rick frey