Making Pistons

Making Pistons for Experimental and Restoration Engines

Here's the inside info on casting aluminum pistons from the ol' Sandcrab himself. He'll show you how to design new pistons taking into consideration heat flow, create the proper lands for the rings to allow high loads and temperatures, make patterns, cast the blanks in sand molds, and machine them into useable pistons.

This is not fluff. You get many details, warnings, problems and solutions from someone who has made pistons from scratch. You'll see the set he created to rebuild a 1930 Dodge engine. And he'll walk you through the whole process, from measuring the bore in the block to removing .002" to make the pistons the necessary egg shape to compensate for deflection at the pin bosses.

You'll see how to build the core box that will create the cavity for the wrist pin, the patterns and necessary gating to get a good pour. He'll even show you the results of pouring at too high a temperature.

You'll get details on the tools needed to hold the piston for machining including the somewhat special tools he used for boring and cutting the ring grooves.

If you build engines from scratch, or have a rare old engine you want to restore, this is a book you ought to have on your reference shelf. Same top rate quality as Steve's other books. Get a copy.

Table of Contents

• Purpose and Introduction (4)
• I. BASIC DATA AND PISTON DESIGN (6)
  • Parts (6)
  • Common Dimensions (7)
  • Thermal Loading (8)
  • Common bhp/in (8)
• II. DETERMINING HEAD THICKNESS (10)
  • As a Flat Plate (10)
  • For Heat Flux (11)
  • Empirical Formulas (13)
• III. RINGS AND WRIST PINS (13)
  • Ring Belt (13)
  • Ring Groove Depth (13)
  • Expansion (14)
  • Pin Bosses (15)
  • Loading (15)
  • Pin Ovalization (16)
  • Ring Design (20)
  • Commercial Rings (22)
• IV. CASTING AND FEEDING (23)
  • Filters (23)
  • Feeding and Solidification (25)
• V. MAKING REPLACEMENT PISTONS (30)
  • Patterns and Cores (35)
  • Casting Piston Blanks (44)
• VI. MACHINING (48)
  • Tools (49)
  • Lathe operations (52)
  • Mill Operations (57)
  • Ovalization (60)
  • Miscellaneous Operations (61)
• CONCLUSION (63)
• BIBLIOGRAPHY (63)
• INDEX (64)