Ok to change the thread a little bit,how long do you guys think a 2618 alloy forged piston engine should last?
I only ask as i have been looking into this a little bit and some people think that you should be looking at another rebuild after about 30-40k miles if not sooner!
The reason for this is because of the clearences that 2618 alloy forged pistons need and when cold they slap and wear the bore and piston alot faster,this is because basicly 2618 alloy pistons are race pistons and you should expect the increased wear.
If you do short jouneys and not let the motor warm up first is also ment to kill the motor a lot sooner!
What i am wondering is how many mile you can get out of them before it starts affecting performance?
Heres some info,some about other cars...
Then, why not install forged pistons instead of the stock pistons?
When I had massive oil consumption on my Viggen, this was attributed to blown pistons (this was not entirely right, but more later). As I had to spend quite some money, I investigated if forged pistons could be the way to go. A german tuner offered to install Wiseco custom forged pistons, but he told me that usually, 50.000 km on forged pistons would be a lot. It is not the piston that fails in this case, but the cylinder wall. This was backed up by a Wiseco rep I phoned: Forged pistons behave different from standard pistons concerning heat. If the car is still cold, piston tolerance is bigger. This will cause additional horizontal movement on the piston and therefore more wear on the engine. Not good for people using the car for a lot of short trips / city cruising.
Plus, if the piston is very hot, it can "mill out" the piston wall, which is softer than the piston material.
Generally speaking, one could probably say that the thermic balance of the engine is "disturbed" by using a forged piston, as the engine block was not designed to work with such a piston in mind.
The same was explained to me by Johann Heuschmid, former Saab factory tuner, and a Mahle Rep (Mahle is a South-German company which makes the stock pistons for the B235R).
Forged Pistons
Forged pistons are typically made from one of two alloys: SAE 4032 or SAE 2618. The 4032 alloy is most often used for pistons in street engines, drag engines, naturally aspirated engines and many sportsman class circle track engines. The 4032 alloy contains more silicon (11 to 13.5 percent) than 2618 (less than 0.25 percent), which reduces thermal expansion, improves lubricity and scuff resistance. The 2618 alloy, by comparison, is a low silicon alloy so it has a higher coefficient of thermal expansion and much more tendency to scuff. But it is about a 10-15 percent stronger material and is typically the alloy of choice for serious racing, marine engines, and boosted and bottle-fed engines that produce a lot of heat in the combustion chamber. However, these pistons are not to be used for street or mild racing applications where they won't be replaced routinely.
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=907570
Even je put a coating on the skirt to show the wear.
http://www.jepistons.com/pistoncoatings.asp
What do you guys think?