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B230FT Forged Piston Options

SwedishKnievel

New member
Joined
Sep 16, 2013
Location
Los Angeles
Looking for forged pistons. Have discovered two options: Wiseco ($710/set) and Yoshifab ($1,100/set but includes H-beam rods). Any other options for forged pistons for a B230FT?

Engine is a 1994.
 
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What year is your engine?
The yoshiFab combo is great; have both the stock and stroker versions in two different engines.
From experience, I run a tighter piston-to-cylinder clearance than stated on the box.
 
Tighter with forged pistons? Good way to seize your motor. Forged need more room then cast.

I believe @11BC2 means he has machined the cylinders tighter than recommended by Yoshifab for their forged pistons, not tighter than for cast pistons.
 
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Doesn't matter, since Josh is likely posting up the manufacturer specs. I'm with Simon...going tighter than piston manuf. specs isn't smart, since forged expand a good bit more than cast.

Back to the original question, Yoshifab does have a nice setup using Arias I think, plan to go with them for the B20 build. JohnV sells CP as well, if you have a brand preference, don't know the current pricing.
 
Sadly, when Nick Arias passed away the business was sold to CP.

Irvine, California - November 3, 2017 -- CP-Carrillo, Inc. and Arias Industries, Inc., a high performance pistons manufacturer, jointly
announced today that CP-Carrillo will acquire the Arias Pistons brand name, trademark and relocate their piston production to CP-Carrillo’s main manufacturing facility in Irvine.

In 1969, Nick Arias Jr. and Carmen Arias started Arias Pistons as a small family owned business in Gardena, California. “With minimal staff and equipment, our parents began a journey that produced leading-edge and highly innovative products and most importantly, new client relations that the family still cherish today. Faced with the current industry consolidation, we have found in CP-Carrillo a strong partner to continue our mission to bring the highest quality, experience, performance and innovation to our customers,” said Nick Arias III, son of Carmen and the late Nick Arias, Jr

I had the pleasure of meeting Nick a few times as he was a personal friend of a neighbor of mine and would visit him once a week. I have always used Arias to make my custom pistons.
 
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Sadly, when Nick Arias passed away the business was sold to CP.

https://ariaspistons.com/pages/contact

I had the pleasure of meeting Nick a few times as he was a personal friend of a neighbor of mine and would visit him once a week. I have always used Arias to make my custom pistons.

Arias makes fine pistons and have used them on many engines.
And running tighter clearance, if done correctly and after years of experience, makes for a better engine.
Example: On Subaru ej257 engines, most forged piston manufacturers call for 3 to 4 thousandths of clearance. Makes for a loud engine that also burns oil. Cutting that clearance in half does nothing but improve performance and lessen oil consumption.
But being a n00b here makes me wrong?
Y?all doubters need to get some real world experience.
 
How much tighter?

Depends on several factors, such as:
1. Piston material, specifically what alloy is used, as thermal expansion varies among the different alloys.
2. Piston construction. Is it ?box in box? or round/full skirt or partial skirt or???
3. What power level is the engine being built to? Forced induction or N/A?

As stated above by others, too tight will cause problems, so I won?t tell you a specific size to bore the block to, but shaving a thousandths off of recommended for a 300hp engine is something I?ve done on two or three b234ft engines with no issues. One engine used yoshifab pistons, which might be arias custom parts, and the other used wiseco brand. Listening to both engines now, I?m gonna shave another 6 tenths of the next build.
 
Depends on several factors, such as:
1. Piston material, specifically what alloy is used, as thermal expansion varies among the different alloys.
2. Piston construction. Is it ?box in box? or round/full skirt or partial skirt or???
3. What power level is the engine being built to? Forced induction or N/A?

As stated above by others, too tight will cause problems, so I won?t tell you a specific size to bore the block to, but shaving a thousandths off of recommended for a 300hp engine is something I?ve done on two or three b234ft engines with no issues. One engine used yoshifab pistons, which might be arias custom parts, and the other used wiseco brand. Listening to both engines now, I?m gonna shave another 6 tenths of the next build.

So you build your engines by sound?:roll:
 
So you build your engines by sound?:roll:

Sound plays a part, yes. After cleaning, measuring(with these fancy things called micrometers!), and punching out the bores on this strange contraption made by Sunnen...a cp30...no, wait... ck something or other...
You can?t listen to an engine and hear piston slap?
There?s no reason for a street car to have piston slap on a fresh rebuild.
 
Example: On Subaru ej257 engines, most forged piston manufacturers call for 3 to 4 thousandths of clearance. Makes for a loud engine that also burns oil. Cutting that clearance in half does nothing but improve performance and lessen oil consumption.
.

All the clearances I'm mentioning are for a 96mm bore, ej25 is a bit more.

The Ej25 clearance... that's way too much clearance for an engine with an aluminum block. 2618 pistons with an aluminum barrel on a high compression (13.5:1) 96mm bore dirt bike engine runs 1.5-2 thou wall clearance. I'd expect the subaru to be 2-2.5 thou if using 2618 pistons, a bit less if using 4032 alloy pistons.

3-4 though is what I'd expect someone to run on a mildly (stock) boosted engine with 2618 pistons in an iron block. If using 4032 alloy pistons, you would be fine in the 2 thou range.

On the 12:1 CR 16v race engine with 2618 pistons, the piston to wall clearance was 4.5 thou. But that engine was WOT all the time, and lived between 3-7.5k the entire time. Only had piston slap when cold.

All that to say, you should be safe to run 3 thou clearance on a stock boosted engine using 2618 forged pistons. If you're running at peak load for extended periods, then you'd want to go looser.
 
Looking for forged pistons. Have discovered two options: Wiseco ($710/set) and Yoshifab ($1,100/set but includes H-beam rods). Any other options for forged pistons for a B230FT?

Engine is a 1994.

JE and CP will also make pistons for a Volvo b230ft. You just have to call them, they are not a stocked item.

Price was within ~$50 with Wiseco a few years ago.
 
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