Wiseco Pistons...

[IbBroken]

Alright I,m going to ask all who are out there in the Hawk world. Has any one gone to wiseco pistons and had any luck? I know sevral who say they have had nothing but bad luck and i have also heard a couple big bore kits do not recomend the use of wiseco. I ran them on my old tripple poo and never had a issue .. My Hawk needs at least a top end this year and i would like to go to a dual ring piston to help stop the heat sink that he have.

[J&L Snowhawk]

I used them in my dirt bikes without any issues. Just have to make sure you warm them up befor you pin it. I'm sure we used them in sled before also.

[TLKD]

What a GOOD question Gary ! We've never debated on that ! And I've got the chance of having pics handy !!!

Have a look at this, upper piston is an 800HO Terra Alps and the bottom one is an 800HO Wiseco (sorry for crappy pic I took it with my phone last time I was at Terra Alps) :



Terra Alps: Cast Piston, has a reinforcing ribs from the pin "housing" to the skirt. Dual rings of course. Walls of the piston are quite thick.

Wiseco : Forged piston, THIN WALLS, no reinforcing ribs, Dual rings that are the thickest out there.

From this picture above, you can see, just by the design of it, that the Wiseco piston seem like a lighter built piston that can create quicker revs. It also looks pretty weak to me... If I was to ask you "which one of these 2 would be more likely to break a skirt" would you find the answer ??? Wiseco would be good for a guy that's on a racing maintenance schedule, rebuild the engine every X amount of hours or so, type of thing. More suited for racing applications. The other piston design above is better for our style of riding. We gotta remember that powering a track in the deep snow is a very very hi load application and we often do it in areas where, sometimes, the only way out is a chopper ride back to the parking lot. We're not MXers that could actually push their bike back to the trailer... And I've heard guys that had a few bad experiences with Wiseco so personnally I'm staying away from Wisecos for my Hawk. On the other hand, I rode them in my YZ125 10 years ago and never had a problem. Mind you, the walls were probably as thick as those up there and the piston was about 1/2 of the size.

Stock Piston (picture Below): Has a decent thickness, has ribs, Couldn't say if it's cast or forged. Problem is the single ring design, which heat soaks.



PRO-X (RkTek) : NOT PICTURED, Very very similar to the Terra Alps Piston, cast piston, not as thick of a wall as Terra Alps but same rib design, rings are thinner.

Cast vs Forged : I don't know enough on that subject but a lot of engine builders will rather work with cast over forged.

Tha being said Gary, I don't know if the 600 piston design is the same as the 800. You can phone Ted at Terra Alps (778-478-9955), he can tell you better than me.

[off road rider]

good subject!!
A big diff in cast and forged pistons are the tighter tol you can run with the forged units, But they are all not the same. I have noticed large differences from wiesco side wall tol and say a higher quality piston from Keith Black something to do with the Alloy used.
I have had both good and very poor results from Wisco.
I use them regularly in all the 2st bikes I rebuild.(Thats a lot of motors) never had a single issue. Had the skirts suck in on my go fast Harley. Run another brand in 4st KTMs..
But those are coated and not available from wisco.
I prefer stock most of the time if its my bike and $$ is not an issue.
they have several diferent sizes available to componasate for jug wear or manufacturing tol. Dont know if its that way on these sled motors or not??
But like TLKD says, a Hawk is not a bike and loads on the motor are much different.

[IbBroken]

Well at least we are on the same page. I dont want to take a chance in the back country and tlk thank you for the # i will call and see if he's got a set for the 600 motor. One thing is for sure I want to try dual rings. **** I might just get a 734 kit from RKtec but who knows. Thanks guys and THINK SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW................and maybe some blue skys for the SNOW so we can RIDE.