Hello, John Talley here with Partzilla.com. Today we're going to be
talking about the advantages of Wiseco pistons versus, say, an OEM manufacturer.
Now let me state first: there's nothing wrong with the OEM style pistons. I mean,
they designed them to work in that particular application, and they do that
very well. However, when you're needing a little bit
more out of your machine, well then you may want to consider going with a Wiseco
piston. Let's take a look at the CRF 450R. Its piston? Lightweight-- it is
forged as well. It has a protective coating and it's designed for that
application. So why would you want to take that out and change it with
something else? Well there's a couple of reasons for that.
The Wiseco is built to a little bit tighter tolerances, and it can put up
with a little bit more abuse if you will inside of that engine. The other
advantage that you have with Wiseco is you can order different compression
ratios versus the stock. I believe the stock on this one is a 12.5:1, and you can
go all the way to a 14.5 to one with the Wiseco Elite Series. Really close
tolerances, can really put up with a lot of extra power, a lot of compression, and
it is just a overall better unit. What if you have a cast piston versus a forged
piston? Well, the example I can show you there is a stock piston one size over
that it's going to be going into an engine rebuild on a TRX 420. Now if
you compare this one to the Wiseco piston, you notice there's a couple of
differences. One, it's a little bit shorter, and the reason being is the way
they actually form the different types of pistons. Now the casting process
consists of taking molten aluminum and pouring it into a mold. Once that cools
down, you've got your piston. Of course it still has to be a machined. That works
well. It gives you a solid piece of aluminum that's easy to heat up, it's
very quiet and it's substantially strong. However, with a forged type piston, what
you're doing is taking an aluminum puck and you're forcing it into the shape
using a huge hydraulic press. Now in doing so, it creates a different
alignment of the metal inside of it, and the best way I can
explain this is particleboard. Man, you've got all these different little pieces of
wood that are basically just glued together. You can compare that to being a
cast-type piston. But if you need something really strong, well that's when you
want a solid piece of lumber and that's what this represents. One of the
advantages of it being stronger is that you can get away with removing more
material making it lighter. Now if you are measuring from wrist pin to wrist
pin, they're exactly the same. But what they were able to do is remove part of
the skirt, hence making that lower, making it lighter, less rotational weight. You
also notice a very glaring difference in between the factory OEM piston and the
Wiseco. It has this black coating called Armor Glide. That does a lot more
than just give them a nice place to put their factory logo. And one of the things
this coating allows this piston to do is overcome a little bit of a shortfall
associated with forged pistons. Forged pistons are denser and they take longer
to come up to operating temperature and you know, as with anything as this heated
it has to expand. Now that's taken into account when they design and manufacture
these. They want it to expand to a certain degree, but during that time
period it may be a little bit loose inside of that cylinder bore. So this
coating helps quiet it down as the piston's coming up to temperature.
Another advantage: this is a very slick surface, especially on the skirts because
those are actually the widest part of the piston and they're in contact with
the walls the most. So you want that to be just as slippery as it can get and
that's what that Armor Glide coating does. So how do you know which one to
order? Well there's a couple of different things we have to take into
consideration. If you're working with a high-performance racer like the CRF 450?
That's already been determined for you because that is a nikasil cylinder, it
only has one size. The decision you would have to make is do I want standard
compression ratio, or do I want to bump it up. If you decide to go with a higher
compression piston? Well, be prepared to make other changes to your machine
as far as your air fuel map as well as
what type of fuel you're running in it to make sure it can handle that higher
compression. Now if we're talking about a cylinder that can be bored? That's the
decision that you have to make with your machinist to determine how much material
is going to be needed to take care of any damage that may have been done to it.
Now what you can pass on to your machinist is if you're using a Wiseco
piston and it says it is for an 86.5 bore? You can bore it to
eighty six point five or as close as you can get to it because Wiseco is
already taken into account in the piston design any tolerances and adjustments. So
there's nothing in your machine this has to do other than bore it to that size.
Now on Partzilla.com, it is really easy to input your year, make, and model and it
will show you all the available pistons that can be used on that particular unit.
When you order a piston from us that comes from Wiseco, you get a little bit
more than just the piston itself. You actually get the rings, the wrist pin, and
then the wrist pin retaining circlips. But Wiseco, they've made it really easy
and they've taken it one step further. If you order a forged piston kit, you get
everything that I just explained, plus the necessary gaskets to do an entire
top end job. If you've got a little bit of time on it? The forged piston kits
going to be the way to go. It's got all the parts that you're going to need to
take care of that top end-- top to bottom with one part number. Well there you go
guys, this is just a short overview of the wide range of products that Wiseco
makes that are available through Partzilla.com. I know it can be a daunting
task, but if you need a little help wading through these waters, please give
us a call. That is what we are here for. Listen, we just want to say thank you for
shopping here with us at partzilla and we will see you in the next video.
Y'all have a great day.