Just some tech info for those of you who are interested

I took these pictures a while back. Some interesting info for you guys. Not only does upgrading to aftermarket forged piston/rods increase bottom end strength, it also does it while reducing the weight of the reciprocating assembly!

Here's the first part. The infamous GTE piston. It's a standard 86mm bore. 377grams.


GTE Rod assembly. Basically this includes the rod itself, rod bearings, and rod bolts. 795grams.


Here's the weight of the piston rod assembly. Includes piston, wrist pin, piston rings, rod bearing, rod, and rod bolts. 1342grams


Is there something wrong with me? lol


NOTE: This was just a random set of GTE rods and pistons. I have about 5-6 sets and all of them vary in weight slightly, but not more than +/-20grams variation for the entire Rod/Piston assembly. This one was the median in the set of 6. However, the Toyota balance is near perfect. For each complete rod/piston assembly, the weight equality between a set of 6 is within 0-1 gram!!!

Onto the aftermarket stuff.

Wiseco Piston 86mm. 336grams


Wiseco Piston 86.5mm. 342grams

NOTE: The Wiseco comes standard with skirt coatings. I believe they are the only manufacturer that does this. No extra charge, pretty cool IMO.

Carillo Pro(CP) Piston 86.5mm. 323grams


Probe Piston 86.5mm. 334grams


Wiseco Wrist Pin. Same weight for 86mm & 86.5mm pistons. 112grams


CP Wrist Pin. 99grams


Probe Pin. 80grams


Wiseco Piston Rings. 22grams

NOTE: I noticed that Wiseco uses low drag piston rings. The ring thickness is less than CP. I'm guessing that's how they achieved that 1gram lighter per ringset.

CP Piston Rings. 23grams


Probe Forged Pistons did not come with rings. For anyone that wants to buy a set those pistons, keep that in mind! The cheaper cost of them is offset by the fact that you have to buy rings! After you get rings, they are only about $100-150 cheaper than Wisecos. I would go for the Wiseco at that point. IMO the Wiseco is a much higher quality piston and with skirt coatings to boot! I ended up returning the Probe Pistons.

H-Beam Rod assembly. This is a run of the mill China made H-Beam rod. I'm pretty sure they are the same rods that are resold by Eagle, Manley, BC(cheaper series), etc. It's actually surprisingly good. The machining and finish is very precise, all 6 pieces balanced within 1gram just like OEM Toyota. They also came with ARP2000 3/8 rod bolts. 668grams


Pauter Rod assembly. 721grams


Wiseco/H-Beam Rod complete assembly weight. Yes, the rings are in there. It's hard to see because they are thinner/low drag rings that come standard with these. 1139grams


CP/Pauter Rod complete assembly weight. 1167grams

 

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WOW! A weight savings of over 200 grams of reciprocating mass per cyclinder! That is tremendous in itself!

Jeff, I am being DEAD serious right now. Instead of me sending my car next Spring to Swift Racing Technologies in Maryland to install my SC kit sitting in my basement, I may ask if I can send my car down to you where you can do the install and perhaps beef up my engine and transmission! What do you think? PM me if you may even remotely be interested!

 

i want new pistons

 

Jeff, thanks for the real tech contributions you make.

Important to note that the GTE rods are REAL forgings unlike the sintered powdered metal rods found in most modern engines.

In the case of our V8s the factory rods are super lightweight powdered metal which are brittle with marginal capacity over stock power and RPM.

I have seen pictures of the GTE forgings in a 1000hp engine that BENT due to cylinder pressures! But the engine would still run albeit with MUCH lower mechanical compression!

Your point of demonstrating weight savings using aftermarket rods and pistons is very good as lower weight makes for a quicker reving engine and extends the RPM range (all else equal).

The Pauter rods are very unusual. Most engineering focuses on the I beam or H beam design whereas the Pauters X beam does not seem to be as strong a design but seem to work and their aero and windage could be superior.

 

question: how does one know which pistol and rods to buy for his GS400? are they kinda universal as long as the sizing is the same?

 

Actually you need to carefully spec what you want when going aftermarket.

Lextreme has some combinations worth looking at.

 

yea i saw the Lextreme setup. I wonder how they weigh in compared to the ones Jeff compared.

 

keep in mind vince,jeff is comparing rods/pistons/rings for the gs300 ...so EVEN if these brands make them for the gs400 they maybe a different weight not to mention you would have a extra 2 of each of these

 

true that. kinda slipped my mind for some reason haha... man sometimes it sucks owning a V8... gotta buy 2 more of everything

 

Very nice post Jeff. Been thinking alot lately about buying a SC300 & goin GTE swap.

 

Awesome write up Jeff! I'm glad I went with CP pistons they are much lighter! Keep it up man