Toyota Racing Development’s MAHLE Motorsports pistons are somewhat similar to the 2618 material typically used in NASCAR Sprint Cup applications, according to Brad Green at MAHLE’s Fletcher, North Carolina American headquarters. As TRD continues to try and gain performance edges while having to deal with shrinking budgets - as everyone does these days - using exotic materials just isn’t the route to take.
Still, according to David Currier, TRD’s vice Read more…
One benefit to building a maximum 510-cubic inch big block Chevrolet engine for American Power Boat Association (APBA) offshore racing, is the cooling. Because cold water constantly throbs through the block and cylinder head, there is very little fall-off in performance and very little micro welding in the ring lands to deal with.
According to Stewart Van Dyne II and Stewart Van Dyne III (Tres) of Van Dyne Engineering in Huntington Beach, California, “We tend to like pistons with longer pins and thicker walled pins because they help Read more…
When it comes to prepping pistons for their NHRA Top Fuel rail, Don Schumacher Racing’s Antron Brown-driven team relies on co-tuner Rob Wendland. This year, the team led the ‘regular season’ of 18 races and finished third in the point standings, 49 behind six-time consecutive champion (and teammate) Tony Schumacher.
Wendland said the team uses a variety of pistons, depending on the nature of the circuit. Their primary choice is a hard anodized JE piston, “Because they provide excellent customer service. Read more…
Keeping a piston’s top ring land from experiencing critical wear is a problem that every engine builder experiences, particularly in the hard fought world of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition. Dr Andrew Randolph of Earnhardt Childress Racing (ECR) Engines has worked endlessly to remedy the problem.
“As rings get closer and closer to the top of the piston, they get so hot that the aluminium melts and adheres to the piston. Not long after that, the piston begins to fail.” What Randolph and ECR have done to circumvent this Read more…
For John Force Racing co-crew chiefs Dean ‘Guido’ Antonelli and Ron Douglas, the 2009 Funny Car season has been all about consistency. Include the selection of Venolia pistons in that mix because, as Antonelli points out, “In our current configuration, the pistons are relatively the same on all eight cylinders. They may vary from cylinder to cylinder, depending on the distribution of air coming out of the blower,” he allowed.
If the pair are getting driver Ashley Force-Hood down the track without hurting any parts, they can easily stay Read more…
Mark Smith’s PME Engines of Mooresville, North Carolina powers the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (CWTS) entries of Ron Hornaday Jr and Matt Crafton, currently first and second in points as the campaign hits its home stretch.
To keep things consistent, there’s not much out of the ordinary that he’s ready to do with his Bill Miller and Mahle pistons at this point in the game. “We do a lot of testing with different moly coatings on the rings and ring lands,” Read more…
Coatings to enhance both performance and longevity are the centre of focus in the world of racing piston manufacture today. To learn more, particularly in a NASCAR context, we talked with Brad Green, an engineer at Mahle Motorsports in Fletcher, North Carolina.
According to Green, all their coating manufacture is performed in-house. This, he told us, can provide shortened lead times and reduced costs when compared to shipping pistons to outside coating sources. It also “gives us much greater control over maintaining tight Read more…
It has taken about two to three years of trial and error, but one American manufacturer believes they have found a new family of aluminium metal matrix materials for use in piston manufacturing. Rather than the customary silicon carbide matrix, a material that has a tendency to wear out manufacturing tools and has extremely sharp edges, this exclusive material consists of spheroidal aluminium oxide AI203 particles, randomly distributed as its reinforcement.
Ever the innovator, NHRA Funny Car crew chief Austin Coil of John Force Racing is currently investigating the use of JFR-produced forged steel ring land inserts on the Venolia pistons used on 14-time Funny Car John Force’s Ford Mustang. “It is a lot like units that the diesel pistons have and the approach was used very successfully in the turbocharged Honda Formula One cars, back in Ayrton Senna’s day,” Coil told us. “But since we can’t afford a million dollars for pistons, we have to find some way of doing it other than the electron beam routing they used.”
The piston lives at the interface of two hostile environments. One dominated by extreme temperature and pressure, and the other by inertia, kinetic energy and friction.
Piston development is an unceasing challenge for the powertrain engineer and the tools of his trade are to be found in many diverse areas, spanning a whole gamut of bespoke materials, advanced tribological solutions, surface topography, treatments and finishes through to the ingenious oil cooling solutions found in modern day diesel pistons. Read more…
