LEAKOIL Forum

They are AA pistons. I don't remember the reasoning for picking them over Mahle. I will work on the bores and wrist pins. Thank you

These AA pistons and liners are garbage. Broken rings, messed up cooling fins, and the wrist pin problem. Mad that I paid to have these balanced and farted around with them for a week.

Bought the Mahle set for $$$ from Amazon. Thank you amazon credit card. Expensive lesson learned. Really running out of time trying to have this done by March 22nd.

In other news, I got this milwaukee impact gun for a pretty good deal from Home Depot. Advertised 1100 ft lbs of 'nut-busting' torque.

Kooper271 wrote: Sat Feb 18, 2017 1:09 pm These AA pistons and liners are garbage. Broken rings, messed up cooling fins, and the wrist pin problem.

That seems unusual. I have AAs in my 2180 without problems and they're going in my 1904 as we speak. They have a good reputation with the Samba crowd and my builder. Maybe you just had a bad luck set.

Maybe I got a bad set. Maybe its operator error. Who knows?

It may be some type 4 issue, AA has a good reputation as to type 1 upright piston sets, they should be able to produce P&C sets for anything with the same quality...

Kooper271 wrote: Sat Feb 18, 2017 6:46 pm Maybe I got a bad set. Maybe its operator error. Who knows?

Seems like it could be any one of those things... I am sure it is frustrating, but keep up the hard work. I enjoy reading about your project and really am looking forward to seeing it on the road.

Thanks, Marla. I hope to have it on the road by 3/23.

I messed around with the pistons in the garage today. The ring breaking was on me - my piston ring compressor expands at the last minute sometimes it turns out. The wrist pins were definitely too big though. As far as the cylinder cooling fin breaking, that's up in the air I guess. I don't know how or why it broke.

I ordered a machined steel compressor for 94mm pistons.

Hang tough Austin. You're almost there.

Kooper271 wrote: Sun Feb 19, 2017 8:06 pm
I messed around with the pistons in the garage today. The ring breaking was on me - my piston ring compressor expands at the last minute sometimes it turns out. The wrist pins were definitely too big though. As far as the cylinder cooling fin breaking, that's up in the air I guess. I don't know how or why it broke.
I ordered a machined steel compressor for 94mm pistons.

The pins were probably tight because you didn't heat the pistons. Try warming them with a heat gun, or sit them on top of a hot light bulb for a while until they're too hot to touch without gloves. I bet the pins fall right in when you do this. I remember putting my pins in the snow on my last build to shrink them in addition to sitting the pistons on a halogen work light. It's OK for the pins to be snug in the pistons, they are not required to be completely free moving in this application. The wear point here is the pin bushing in the rod- if it were snug there it would be a no-go. Many V8 gas pistons (SBC) are an interference fit in the piston and free spin in the rod bushing.

I rarely if ever use a ring compressor. I "walk" the rings over the piston crown into the appropriate groove one by one. They are brittle and without experience they can be broken.

Post here the next time you hit a jam, I bet we can save you some money. The compressor you ordered is probably big money, I'd return it if you can. There's a mild chamfer on the top of the jugs, I assembled a 1600 a couple of years ago with no compressor at all. Walk the piston into the cyl, cock it slightly, push the ring in with your fingertip, walk the ring into the jug, walk the piston down and do the next one. Easy peasy, it's sloppy because everything is dripping with oil but no big deal.

Good Luck!

Yeah, I should have posted here first but I'm running on a tight deadline.

I was going to heat the pistons but then I broke the ring. The fit is so tight that I actually damaged one of the wristpins. The pins are a perfect fit in the rods.

Luckily the ring compressor was only $35 shipped.

Good info on installing the pistons without a compressor. I never would have thought of that. Thanks!

Dan found a stick in my gas tank