Another issue with the pistons Mahle offers is weight.
The B230-FT pistons available are cast and they are BRICKS! 700+grams (715?)for the complete piston package!
The wrist pin supplied is large diameter (23mm) and very thick soft material, not a performance pin by any name.
The pins look like a diesel pin, but show premature wear due to the soft material.
I'm thinking something more like 450-500 grams for the whole package (pin & rings & retainers).
How much crisper would a RedBlock be loosing 200G per piston???!!! No re-balancing needed, because 4 cyl inline...
I am looking at using a Diamond piston they have a turbo piston for a LS motor that is rated for 2000hp (LS2k).
http://blog.diamondracing.net/diamond-ls2k
I am looking at using that piston downsized for a redblock and use the longer 158mm H-beam rods.
But still hoping for an off the shelf solution for a forged piston.....
Open for suggestions
The Mahle cast pistons held up well in this motor, I pulled apart due to noise problems which turned out to be carbon knock.
Under 10k miles of which half was at full throttle (fixing boost control and fueling issues).
I could reassemble the motor after cleaning but someone calling themselves a machinist opened up the pin clearence in the rods and pistons to .002"
And I don't feel right about that.
I pushed the bushings out of the rods to replace them and found they are a non-standard size, and the Chiwan rods were machined really poorly (rough high feed rate finish) under the bushing so they need to be honed first to properly hold the new bushings then hone the bushings to size and by the time I've done that I could buy a new set of rods.
So if I'm buying new rods I'd prefer to use a longer rod with a lighter piston and have a much better package.