hey everybody i just wanted to know if the supertech pistons are any good for boost, they look really good and you can't beat the price, plus they are aluminum so it'll probably help the revs.... any input would be greatly appreciated

Im using them in my built KA during break-in and beat them up pretty good and nothing bad happened...but thats NA so i hardly counts lol. My friend boosted 24Psi on them for a couple of years and one of his landing rings gave out but not the pistons, and he will use them again he says.

Pic of them in my block

cool thank you so much for the info, another question, did you use their rings?? or you got something different?? that probably goes to everyone lol, again thanks in advance for the help

im using their rings. Im not sure if my friend did but he was always messing with his setup.

alright cool thanks so much for the input anybody else got any more input on this????

Ka24DET-S14 wrote: one of his landing rings gave out but not the pistons

huh???

Ka24DET-S14 wrote:im using their rings. Im not sure if my friend did but he was always messing with his setup.

Most piston manufacturers do not make their own rings but atleast we know Supertech is rebranding a quality product

This thread is depressing...

First of all, the ring lands are part of the piston, in fact they are the part that BREAKS 9 times out of 10, so if the ring lands break, the piston broke!

Second of all, all KA pistons, and indeed the majority of all pistons in ANY MODERN GASOLINE POWERED VEHICLE are made from aluminum, so its really not that big a deal.

I never said the ring broke, he lost compression in one cylinder and he said it was a ring. As to whether he actually broke one or something I don't know but he said he was going to redo them.

SX APPEAL wrote:This thread is depressing...

First of all, the ring lands are part of the piston, in fact they are the part that BREAKS 9 times out of 10, so if the ring lands break, the piston broke!

Second of all, all KA pistons, and indeed the majority of all pistons in ANY MODERN GASOLINE POWERED VEHICLE are made from aluminum, so its really not that big a deal.

truth!

ok so yea my aluminum statement was really stupid but anyways i still wanna know if there is a fair amount of people out there using the supertech pistons successfully in their boosted KA's

SX APPEAL wrote:This thread is depressing...

First of all, the ring lands are part of the piston, in fact they are the part that BREAKS 9 times out of 10, so if the ring lands break, the piston broke!

Second of all, all KA pistons, and indeed the majority of all pistons in ANY MODERN GASOLINE POWERED VEHICLE are made from aluminum, so its really not that big a deal.

No need to muck it up any further though...right

If a piston ring does break it's because there was detonation. This problem has nothing to do with with the type of piston. The stock KA pistons have been taken over 500whp, in fact the rods bend and snap before the ring lands go. You just have to tune the knock out. Also...it looks like he was trying to say that the ring broke. Which means the piston can be reused.

Your aluminum statement is so generic it provided nothing useful info wise. How many different types of aluminum pistons are there? The big difference is whether or not they are forged or cast. Differences that make a night and day difference. The guy obviously wants info about the product, so you either have some or you don't. No need to make him feel dumb for asking a question before spending his $$.

OP, I've heard good things about Supertech Pistons.

motoman399 wrote:

SX APPEAL wrote:This thread is depressing...

First of all, the ring lands are part of the piston, in fact they are the part that BREAKS 9 times out of 10, so if the ring lands break, the piston broke!

Second of all, all KA pistons, and indeed the majority of all pistons in ANY MODERN GASOLINE POWERED VEHICLE are made from aluminum, so its really not that big a deal.

truth!

I expect more from you dude

WD

guess I was having a bad day. I'll try to be more sensitive in the future

No worries dude...I have those days all the time...lol.

wasnt meaning to be rude. i thought his post was kinda informative and was clearing a few things up with the op's post.

i personally dont have any info about that brand of pistons, again like WD said have heard good things. but when he talks about them being aluminum, he should know that it is very common these days for pistons to be aluminum and getting the supertech pistons will not increase rev speed, unless they are lighter (which if they are it most likely will not be noticeable)

and the part about the ring lands is true. soo.. again i was not trying to be rude or pushy or any of that jive. sorry if i offended anyone.

I ran Supertech's for 2 weeks on 10psi with a fresh rebuild and one of my wrist pins snapped right in half. Sent them out because evidence showed it was caused by manufacture defect. Guys from Supertech said it was detonation and if I want they'll send me a new set. That's just a little part of horror story regarding supertech. I've heard a lot of people that like them and I've heard a couple people that have had similar problems to mine. I understand every single part that comes out of manufacturing is not going to be flawless but at least man up to the ones that are defected. Womp Womp.

A wrist pin snapped? Man...I wonder what caused that? I don't even hear of stock wrist pins breaking. I seriously doubt detonation is going to snap a pin, considering there are many weaker area's that will break first.

Got pics?

im interested to see pics too. thats pretty nuts

Oh I'll get you guys pics if you want. Someone just has to teach me how to because I'm new to the forum community. Yeah they sent me a rediculous analysis report too if you guys want me to post that up. It's super b/s. If you're interested just let me know. I'm on my phone right now so it'd have to be later on tonight or tomorrow.

you got to use an image hosting account. there are tons of free ones. then just copy and paste the [img] tag

I use facebook lol

Ok, well I just actually found out that the host link that Supertech sent me has been deleted, so I cant send you guys the actual report until I get back to the shop and scan in the copy I printed. I think the guys from supertech tried to be slick and delete the report that way I didnt have any copies of it??? Or I could be bias and paranoid. Anyways, I'll just take my own pictures and post them asap. But the wrist pin in cylinder #3 is completely snapped in half. I know of a thread on KA-T.org where a guy had the exact same problem with supertech pistons and the pictures on there were pretty much identical to what my wrist pin looked like. Only thing is that 3 of his snapped. Here's the link >>>>>>> http://www.ka-t.org/forums/viewtopic.ph ... wrist+pins

wow and i was planning on supertech pistons for my winter build. please post up all the pics and follow up you can. thank you for bringing this to our attention

I meant to make a thread back in august about this but I've been so busy with work/pissed off about supertech that I just put my build on the back burner since it won't come back out until the spring. I'll be in the shop tmrw so I'll look for that report and post my own pix.

Hey guys. I finally took some pictures of my own. Sorry about the quality but they were taken from my iphone.

This is the piston from cylinder #3 where the wrist pin snapped.






This is the rod from cylinder #3.





And these are some shots of the wrist pins.








And this one is my favorite. "Thank you for choosing Supertech. Breakthrough Performance Racing Valves & Pistons"
No really. It's breakthrough performance.




If you guys want I can paraphrase some of this analysis report they sent me.

Hey guys, I know this was pretty much a dead topic for a while but I will be entering this thread into evidence if supertech doesn't decide to settle out of court. I will be writing up the report they gave me as soon as I get a chance. What will really help is if I can get your guys' input. 3rd party information from people that I have no persona relation with would be greatly appreciated. What is your own personal definition of detonation when being referred to a vehicles motor. What are it's causes and effects. You guys would help me out a bunch if you can just give me some input. Thank you in advance.

I'll ask the guys on staff if they have any personal experience and have them drop in. I also edited your title so it would easier to find via "search".

WD

FullyBuiltKA wrote:Hey guys, I know this was pretty much a dead topic for a while but I will be entering this thread into evidence if supertech doesn't decide to settle out of court. I will be writing up the report they gave me as soon as I get a chance. What will really help is if I can get your guys' input. 3rd party information from people that I have no persona relation with would be greatly appreciated. What is your own personal definition of detonation when being referred to a vehicles motor. What are it's causes and effects. You guys would help me out a bunch if you can just give me some input. Thank you in advance.

Detonation is the uncontrolled, premature explosion of the air/fuel mixture inside the cylinder. In a properly running engine, the fuel doesn't actually explode, it burns in a controlled wave that propagates out and away from the spark plug after it fires, usually slightly before the piston reaches top dead center on its compression stroke. This is why your base timing will always be something like 20* before TDC. This allows the burn to reach proper intensity just as the piston reaches TDC, and therefore take the most advantage of the energy released on the power stroke.

What happens in the case of a detonation, is the air fuel mixture will actually combust prior to the spark plug firing, whether it be due to excessive heat or pressure inside the cylinder. This combustion is completely uncontrolled and usually delivers a huge shock load to the piston and entire rotating assembly, as the full force of the explosion is hitting the piston while it's still coming up on the compression stroke. This is the force that breaks ring lands, puts holes through pistons, and apparently can break wrist pins as well.

Feel free to point out any mistakes/inaccuracy in my writing...

Uncontrolled flame front pushing down on the piston as the rod drives the piston up. Caused by tons of things, bad always. Usually destroys ring lands first.

I appreciate it WD. Keep them coming guys. Nothing internally was effected by this "detonation" besides the wrist pin in cylinder 3. Than the pieces of broken wrist pin got into everywhere as well as the piston slapping against the cylinder wall. Mind you, i probably drove 200 feet total than turned the SOB off and rolled to the shop after the pin snapped. Cylinder 3 is scorned and would have to be bored out another I don't even know how many mm. Another thing that would really help me out is if you guys have ever heard of wrist pins snapping? And if so...? What causes this problem? I want to solely blame it on the fact of it being manufacture defect but i'll try not to be so bias. TY guys again in advance.