GR wrote:
HI GTMOWOG
The engine reconditioning industry generally know of the problems with JP Pistons and do not use them in performance applications, mostly where other pistons are not available any more.
I know they used to make performance holden V8 pistons that cracked, and one of my Melbourne customers had a successfull claim based on the fact of poor maching quality and alloy strength. Rudy Samperi, Federal Moguls claims engineer can verify this.
As for JP not wanting to deal with myself, they would not have known who they were talking to, as I rang for a price on mini pistons and sizes available, and was informed of the retail price, and was informed of 15% trade discount
If you are able to buy these pistons and rings for less than $200 incl GST and freight, then maybe you should offer them to other forum mini owners to help them out.
My 998 and 1100 pistons and rings are used extensively throughout the world,
Canada, USA, UK, Europe, Belgium, France, Norway, Denmark , NZ etc in high performance and racing applications, infact are a favourite in UK in grass track racing, one of the top engine builders in NZ uses them in mini7 racing, and the list goes on....
maybe I could send you a set of pistons for you to personally evaluate, and then you must pass them on to a member of this forum who is in need of real assistance,maybe that person would like to go racing, but cant afford quality pistons
Whoa there GR, you sound rather paranoid there!
850man wrote:
Piston selection for a Mini engine is a simple task made hard by forums like this. Use these pistons because "so&so" says their good really is useless information. Talk to the engine builder about what you are going to use you engine for, it takes years of experience to pick the correct piston for your engine build and they will guide you in the right direction.
There are a number of pistons available to suit the A series engine, remember BMC/Leyland/Rover did make 18 Million A series engines so aftermarket piston development is nothing new.
Whatever piston you select needs to be correct of the application. Compression/pin height/ring size & type/skirt length & type/Piston to Bore clearence etc all depend on what type of engine you are building.
We, (NMP) used AE Hepolite pistons in all our change over Mini engines with great success. I built 10 engines at a time and we sold hundreds of them, we never had a return due to piston problems.
These days I still use the AE Hepolites in my std & mild A series engines. They are more expensive than the Hypatec brand but my experience tells me a Hepolite is a better product. While working as a Engine reconditioner at a Australia wide engine reconditioning business we used every brand of piston available, including the Chinese made Hypatecs because that was all that was available some times, often they were incorrectly made and required modification. We were a ACL main distributor and used ACL pistons in all the change over Holden/Ford/Mitsubishi etc engines.
ACL Pistons are now made by Mahle and are still a quality product. There Race series pistons are great, I have used many sets of the flat top 202 Holden pistons in the HQ race engines years ago with great success. We never had any problems with JP Alloy timing gears either and I still continue to use them to this day. Just ask Keith Davidson what he thinks of them.
I recently built 2 large bore 1100cc Mini engines using RE Pistons. I used Grahams pistons as they were the only +100 oversize pistons available cheaply and I wanted to support a fellow Mini engine parts supplier.
I recomended JP Pistons in SA and Special Piston Services in Vic as options for special applications. I build not just A series engines at my current employer, we often need specialy made pistons to suit modified road & race engines and both the piston suppilers can make pistons to suit.
I use JP Pistons for our Nb Mini racecar engine. JP were able to provide a 1275 Piston with my specific pin height/ring grove size & position and bore size. We have had no problems with them. I belive Matt Reid also uses JP pistons in his race engines with great success.
I also have used AE and Mahle pistons in race A series engines with no problems.
The last 997 Cooper engine I built I used short skirt std size Honda motorbike pistons. John Keneally built a 997 Targa Tasmania Cooper engine using the same Honda pistons 10 years ago and that car is still going strong.
As far as pricing goes for both JP & SPS, how long is a piece of string? Pricing depends on what you order. Telling people that JP are no good and that they crack is poor form, Cast pistons these days are very well made and would only give problems if they were not installed properly or didnt use the recomended clearence, compression etc. Remember, its not just JP that sell cast pistons for engines.
Well said and put 850man.
I've used a LOT of JP pistons, Never had a problem with them, they are a good product, reasonably priced, well they are for me
