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Hi I am Dave and today I am going to answer your questions about pistons. The most common
question we hear regarding pistons centers around piston material. Basically, what is
the difference between a cast and forged piston? Well the difference mainly lies within the
manufacturing process. With a cast piston you basically melt down aluminum or alloy
and then poor it into a mold and quickly cool it. With a forged piston, they start with
a lump of aluminum or alloy and then stamp the piston directly out of that material.
So what are the advantages to each? Well a cast piston is generally more affordable,
lighter in weight and often plenty ample for street applications. A forged piston is typically
much stronger than a cast piston and we recommend those for a high horsepower or higher rpm
applications. So when exactly do you need to step up to a forged piston? There really
isn't a threshold you need to cross in order to step up to a forged piston but if you are
going be running high boost, high rpm or high horsepower on your engine, your definitely
going to want to air on the side of caution and step up to a forged piston. Another question
we hear quite often is what are hypereutectic pistons and how do they differ from cast pistons?
Hypereutectic pistons are a nice mid-level compromise between cast and forged pistons.
During the casting process a silicone mix is added to the molten aluminum before cooling,
this silicon gives the pistons increased strength and improved thermal characteristics so there
is not as much thermal expansion during engine operation. This allows you to run much tighter
tolerances. If you have a question regarding pistons or any other high performance related
topic, please feel free to a question in the comment section below.