6 Cylinder Forged Piston Supplier

[Geoff Dowdle]

Can anyone out there suggest a good supplier of FORGED pistons for 2 litre engines. In UK I understand Cosworth are very good but expensive & what about Peter Hepworth or others. Are there any suppliers in Europe or USA .
Any recommendations will be appreciated from owners who have had first hand experience .
I'm slowly building up a D2 engine with gear driven high lift cam , 6 port head with three twin throat Weber carbs and would like pistons to give about 10.5 to 1 compression .

Merry Xmas
Geoff Dowdle

[johnelfixit]

Try F W Thornton ( www.fwthornton.co.uk ). If they don`t know, nobody in
the UK or Europe will! I assume that you have tried JP pistons (
http://www.jp.com.au/JPPistons.html ). They appear to make only cast
pistons.

John P

[Ashley James]

Cosworth don't forge pistons but use some very advanced casting
techniques, Mahle might do something similar and it's been suggested
that Peter Hepworth's are sourced in Australia. Certainly piston
rings seem to come from new Zealand these days as Britain prices
itself out of the Market.

I reckon your best bet is to speak to Tony Byford as he builds lots of
racing engines and is an extremely nice and helpful chap. I've been
embarrassed by the amount of help he's given me without charging me
for any of it. 01793 740794

Tony prepares Roddy MacPherson's amongst others.

Ashley

[Hydroglen]

Hi Geoff,
I may be in the market myself for some pistons and if I get to that point I
will be talking to Arias http://www.ariaspistons.com/
also Venolia that does list Bristol in their catalogue
http://www.venolia.com/products.html . They are both in the USA and well
respected in the custom piston/ antique car / race car hobby.
I will be posting some pictures and questions in the next day or so.
Merry Christmas,
Dorien

[briwmw]

I have used 10.5:1 Venolia Pistons in my race engines. They are in in Long Beach, California. Google: Venolia Forged Pistons.
Bill Watkins

[Geoff Dowdle]

Dorien, Bill, JohnP & Ashley , thankyou all for your replies.
I'll now start some researching of type , availability , suitability, price
etc and will advise in the next few weeks
Regards
Geoff

[Bellerophon]

Geoff, I expect that you know, and I have put the information on here
before, but there are others that will not know.
The original pistons which are of a very light construction were forged (or
pressed for understanding) by a firm called Specialloyd which was part of the
Wellworthy Group who also made the Alfin brake drums used on the later cars.
This type of piston was developed during the war to produce a light strong
product which had a thin crown, and which has caused the downfall of quite a
few of our members due to detonation caused by a weak mixture and an advanced
ignition, and resulting in a collapsed crown.

As with a lot of our good companies Wellworthy no longer exist so one is
thrown back on the current suppliers, but a lot of their modern pistons are
thick and heavy but gives the possibility of modifying by removing some metal. An
example is by taking a high compression piston with a thick crown, and
machining to produce an almost flat top piston, so there is food for thought.

My regards,
Bellerophon

[RGSchmitt]

Hi all -

For future records, does anyone have weights of the original or other
spec pistons?

Bob