Piston Upgrade

prostreet66mustang

prostreet66mustang

Active Member
Dec 6, 2020
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Oro Valley (Tucson) Az
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  1. Talon R
Has any one swapped out rods and piston with the engine in the car? Book shows 26 hours to R an R the engine alone. Is there enough room to get a ball hone in if it is in the car? Would you do it again or was it chasing your tail. THX to all.
 
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PaulF

PaulF

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Lifetime Member
Jul 1, 2019
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Utah
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  1. Talon R
Has any one swapped out rods and piston with the engine in the car? Book shows 26 hours to R an R the engine alone. Is there enough room to get a ball hone in if it is in the car? Would you do it again or was it chasing your tail. THX to all.
No need to remove the engine, it can easily be done in the car. Basically you remove the skid, head and oil pan to get the pistons out. You should be able to get a ball hone in there. See this vid, they do a piston swap...

 
Many_Gs

Many_Gs

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Apr 5, 2021
217
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PA
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  1. Talon X4
Has any one swapped out rods and piston with the engine in the car? Book shows 26 hours to R an R the engine alone. Is there enough room to get a ball hone in if it is in the car? Would you do it again or was it chasing your tail. THX to all.
Did you already order the pistons? I contacted Dr powersports today asking about pricing for the pistons and head studs. Curious what you got so far.

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk
 
prostreet66mustang

prostreet66mustang

Active Member
Dec 6, 2020
63
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Oro Valley (Tucson) Az
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  1. Talon R
Did you already order the pistons? I contacted Dr powersports today asking about pricing for the pistons and head studs. Curious what you got so far.

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk
Hi I did not want my car down again. Did that with shocks too many times. I bought the studs on an order with others from Hess. The and other parts( head was 1100 then 800 of small parts) from Babbits. And then everything went to Brian Crower as it sounds like he has already done many other them and he is working with someone for the tune. I am changing rods with the pistons and trying to make a dependable desert machine that can run with the others. I want to have everything on my bench before I start. Then to the rollers. Will post numbers when it happens.
 
ToolTime

ToolTime

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Oct 10, 2020
38
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Oregon
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  1. Talon X
Get your pistons from DR Powersports. My first set were the 9.5:1 Carrillo and while they may have been fine with stock Jackson boost numbers, they were too tight for more boost. BTW, you can’t clean that kind of mess up with a ball hone 🤣. Piston and rods are an easy install in frame. Engine removal and tear down to bare block is a LOT of work. Nearly finished getting mine back together, will be putting a boost controller on it and turning it up to see what we can do before too long :)
 
snuffnwhisky

snuffnwhisky

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Sep 21, 2016
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Cullman, AL
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  1. 1000-5

  2. Other Brand
The crank doesn't come out without pulling the engine/trans and splitting the case. Would be hard and sketchy to clean up after honing in frame.
 
ToolTime

ToolTime

Member
Oct 10, 2020
38
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Oregon
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  1. Talon X
To tight what piston to wall clearance??
The off the shelf Carrillo pistons I got the first time around were .003”, and didn’t have the oil ring backup that should be on any piston with a high enough wrist pin to interfere with the oil rings. Chads solves these issues and are coated. I can’t say for certain if Carrillo had made changes since I bought mine, that was quite a while ago.
 
scoutt

scoutt

Member
Sep 11, 2020
12
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13
Oregon
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  1. Talon R

  2. w/Turbo
Did you already order the pistons? I contacted Dr powersports today asking about pricing for the pistons and head studs. Curious what you got so far.

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk
Did you also ask for price on the injectors they used? curious what price he gave you for everything.
 
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Many_Gs

Many_Gs

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Apr 5, 2021
217
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PA
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  1. Talon X4
Did you also ask for price on the injectors they used? curious what price he gave you for everything.
Thanks for the reminder, I never got a reply from them. I'll have to reach back out!

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk
 
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SLOWPOKE693

SLOWPOKE693

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Mar 10, 2020
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Somewhere in Texas
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  1. Talon R
The off the shelf Carrillo pistons I got the first time around were .003”, and didn’t have the oil ring backup that should be on any piston with a high enough wrist pin to interfere with the oil rings. Chads solves these issues and are coated. I can’t say for certain if Carrillo had made changes since I bought mine, that was quite a while ago.
The shelf CP pistons are all tight. Not sure what they were thinking when they made them but thermal expansion didn't seem to be on their mind at the time. I went with a set of custom 12.5-1 CP pistons from Brian Crower for my build along with a pair of his rods with the upgraded bolts.
 
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S

SL1kr

New Member
Jan 16, 2021
8
8
3
Benton AR
Ownership

  1. Other Brand
No need to remove the engine, it can easily be done in the car. Basically you remove the skid, head and oil pan to get the pistons out. You should be able to get a ball hone in there. See this vid, they do a piston swap...

I was wondering what all they had done to the Talon in the video because it appears that they didn't do anything to the the head & they said nothing about what camshaft they were running, but I would have to think that this was more involved than just doing a piston swap, return fuel line & map sensor upgrade to get those numbers, I'd be curious to know what kinda boost numbers they are running as well? But I think the book is being extremely generous with 26 hours to R&R the engine on a Talon, it's not difficult at all after you get past the seemingly hundreds of push pins holding the interior panels in place because they can be fun after they are full of dirt and stuck, I ended up just going the easy way and drilled them out and replacing them with new ones that are soaked with WD40 and saved. myself all the time trying to get those push pins out. But I had to replace the crankshaft so I had no choice on removing the engine but it was a lot easier to build sitting on the bench than trying to do it still in the car. I had Hess do my head and cam but this was in October last year and I didn't know that Brian Crowler had stuff for the Talon or I would have rather went with their camshaft for sure just because they offer a new camshaft with more lift and duration instead of having a stock camshaft reground like I had mine done.

IMG 20210923 175520 IMG 20210923 175622
 
SLOWPOKE693

SLOWPOKE693

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Mar 10, 2020
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Somewhere in Texas
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  1. Talon R
For you guys looking to upgrade the fuel system and injectors give Erik at PPEI a call and he can set you up with the correct stuff. They stock Injector Dynamics fuel system kits along with Injectors of various sizes. He can also set you up with a drop in aftermarket fuel pump from DW if you are needing more flow. I bought all my stuff from them and was quite happy with the price and shipping times.
 
SLOWPOKE693

SLOWPOKE693

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Mar 10, 2020
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Somewhere in Texas
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  1. Talon R

I have a pair of those Wossner pistons that I didn't use if anybody is intrested, Id cut someone here a good deal on the kit. They are advertised as 12-1 compression but are closer to 11-1 so I went with custom Crowers instead. They are really nice pistons and the machining is second to none. If they were true 12-1's they would be in my motor.
 
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K

KenThompson

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2019
280
622
93
Mulino
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  1. Talon X
Wiseco 9:1 forged pistons will allow more boost, and survive fine. You can spend alot more money on pistons with a lot of bells and whistles if you want. I have been using Wiseco pistons for over 20 years with no issues. You will want to use a bar hone, not a ball hone. A bar hone will keep the cylinder walls straight and true. If you are just trying to create cross hatch to seat rings, a ball hone will be fine. Most aftermarket pistons will require a lot more material removal to get the proper clearance. Be sure to remove the oiling tubes that spray oil to the under side of the pistons. If you don’t, you will prolly tear them up when honing the lower area of the cylinder.
 
DennyChapman

DennyChapman

Active Member
Sep 7, 2021
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Statesboro Ga.
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  1. 1000-5
I also just put the 11:1 ratio pistons from Hess in my P 1000, did you guys have to mess with your timing any due to the higher compression?
 
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