Crap, how do I get myself into these situations, why cant I learn to just KEEP MY BIG MOUTH SHUT!
OK, this is basically all in reference to the "old days" when all these pistons were made domestically, but under the old system, there were basically two different species of TRW/Sealed Power/Speed Pro forged pistons, there is the "stock replacement line" pretty much direct copies of OEM pistons and were boxed as TRW or Sealed Power, these generally had a slotted oil ring land, were the same weight as the oem piston, oem pin offset, and were designed to replace an OEM piston. They were listed in the old TRW and Sealed Power catalogs by OEM application, you would look up the year and engine in the TRW/Sealed Power catalog, and they would list all the parts they made for that application across the page, lifters, bearings, pistons, rings, ect. They were available for pretty much any domestic engine, and honestly, if you used them properly, they were a pretty damned good piston for the price. I'd way rather have them than a goddam hyper, that collapses the ring lands at the first hint of detonation, and fails catastrophically when it fails. I still use them a LOT, and often pick them up good used or NOS for around $100-$150 a set for chevies and small block fords, a little more for FE or BB Mopar. When I first started building motors, if you went to a cruise night or a bracket night or street race, that was what would be in about 98% of the motors there.
There were also the so-called TRW "racing pistons, which were also sold under the old "Speed-Pro" label, and also Manley and Duffys sold pistons based on the same basic forging, but with slightly different machining. In the case of TRW, these were actually listed in a separate "racing pistons" catalog. These pistons were machined for 1/16 rings instead of 5/64, had drilled oil ring lands rather than slotted, centered pins, most numbers also had floating rather than pressed pins and the majority of applications were domed. A lot of these part #'s could even be ordered without ring grooves and an unfinished dome, so hard-core racers could finish them the way they wanted. These pistons were also designed to run at typical "race piston" clearances. Some of them could even be ordered with grooves pre-cut for head-land or dykes rings, and they didn't weigh the same as OEM pistons, so required balancing. They are a
COMPLETELY different deal than the OEM replacement pistons, I know, because I made my living selling all this shit in the late seventies/early eighties. These pistons were also only available for a fairly limited range of engines, compression ratios and pin heights, especially if you raced anything other than a chevy. These ran about $100 more than the OEM replacement line, but to give an example, in the early eighties there were only two FE pistons in this line, a std bore 12/1 428 piston, and a +030 12/1 428 piston. Any other FE? Forget about it, it was get something from the "OEM" line, or Venolia/Arias.
At that time, you didn't have the myriad of different aftermarket piston manufacturers like you do now, and the price leap between a OEM replacement TRW/Sealed Power piston and a true race piston, like a Venolia or Arias was profound, we are talking the difference (in Canada, were I am) between $200-$250, and $700-$800. there were no mid-priced race piston makers like RaceTec, SRP or Ross, there were the OEM replacement pistons, there was the limited range of TRW/Manley/Speed-Pro "race" pistons, mostly for chevies, and there was the custom race piston, like Arias, Venolia or BRC. So most of us learned how to use the OEM replacement pistons in the vast majority of engines we built, and make them work. And we sure as hell didn't do it by doing things like running them at 4 times the recommended wall clearance.
But hell, its not my motor, I don't have any skin in the game, so....
