pistons?

[bahelion89]

alright my cars getting new pistons at the start of the year and i was wondering which ones i go with? either t3 Mahle's or Venolia's? i have shot peened stock rods with arp bolts and the car is stock bore which i want to stay with. i really dont want to have to ever touch them again after there installed.
i noticed that the Venolias have bigger wrist pins..can you mod the stock rods to accept the bigger pins?

[glhs727]

Depends on your block. If you can stay standard in size the t-3 forged mahles will be fine. If you have to bore the block, you cannot use the mahles you will need to go oversize, and the venolias are a great piston. The stock rod can be honed to fit the larger wrist pin, so that shouldn't be an issue

[cawcislo]

I've had venolias in my car for about 8 years and lots of abuse at 18 psi and EGT's in the 1600's (for brief moments). So they've been good to me and I'd use them again.

[ILIKESHELBYS]

+1 on the Venolia piston setup. I have been using them since 1986 when I had my first engine built at "Koffel's Place" in Walled Lake, MI. If you remember the name "Joe Varde" you might remember this place. Joe was the King of Turbo Dodge SCCA (and maybe others) racing in the 80s and Koffel's Place was the place that he used to build his engines. They build the famous B1 engines now.

[bahelion89]

i'm trying to stay standard bore because this is the original block. i remember reading that there is more blow by issues with the mahles and almost no problem with the venolias..can i use venolias in a standard bore i guess is my big question and if thats possible will i weaken the rods by honing them to accept the bigger wrist pins?

[cawcislo]

How much power are you looking to make. All rods will be weak at a certain power level. The increase in wrist pin size I believe is very minor (I also had an additional oiling hole drilled into the wrist pin side of the rod for additional oiling per the mopar performance manual). I'm not sure what the stock forged dodge rods are rated to but there's plenty of people making 300+ hp on them. If you're looking to run crazy power like 400+ hp you may want to consider a different rod. As for bore size you will need to check with your machine shop for bore measurements compared to the size of the venolia pistons. I believe forged pistons will require more slack (clearance) than stock pistons as they tend to expand more (and will be noisy when cold due to piston slap). So your cylinder may need to be bored a very small amount depending on their trueness and the clearance between the forged pistons. Good luck.

[turismolover22]

No the rods should be fine, Most owners do that to their "T2" rods anyway, as the alternative, like eagle H-beam rods, are quite pricey. I think that is what Jackson has done in many of his cars, but don't quote me on that.

[Lotashelbys]

If your cylinder walls are still small enough I would re-use the factory Mahles. .0045 to .005 is about max I would run with them. I run factory TIII Mahles in as many motors as I can. The only reason to get Venolias is if you have to go oversize. Both TIII Mahles and Venolias can hold up to the same amount of abuse. I still have stock TIII Mahles in my green car since the block was still small enough to do so. The only real problem with a stock TIII bottom end is the TIII Mahles used a 2 piece oil ring that will break apart will enough detonation. So if your block will work with std size get it honed and a good ringset(E-640K) and you will be good to go.


As for rods one thing that people forget is TIIIs can with the same rod as a TII-2.5TI but with a harder rodbolt. There are the same tensile strength as the std ARPs. Stock TIII rods are good to about 425-450WHP WITH THE CORRECT TUNE! Polishing the beams and shot blasting and ARP 2000 bolts are not a bad idea if you are trying to get close to that number. Anything more than that its time for H-beams. I like to tell people if you can keep it std bore on a TIII spend your 500 that you were gonna on pistons on H-beam rods

[Millerman340]

Hey jackson, I've been looking @ other 16 valve pistons to see what might work in our cars with longer or shorter rods (More or less a stroker)... Have you looked into 87 mm pistons from other engines...?