How are they holding up as far as ring seal? Any smoke on start up?

 

Only 1000 miles if that and no smoke yet and hopefully none anytime soon.

 

the "he said, she said" from CP pistons is that Pro Power/Mod Max (as far as I know the only place that distributes the CP for our trucks) has been sending out some el cheapo rings with the pistons.

more "he said, she said" but, there have been quite a few cases of oil consumption, smoking, and engines with rings that just would not seat.

CP is proud of their product, and not happy about the possibility that the distributor may be causing the CP name to be viewed poorly due to the use of cheap rings. most folks including myself assumed that the rings were spec'd by CP, not merely thrown in as a cost cutting measure by ModMax/ProPower. when you buy a 700 or 800 dollar set of pistons you would assume that you were getting an equivalent quality set of rings.

allegedly, ProPower/Mod Max has never heard of one of their spec CP pistons failing. they may not have heard about it, but it definately has happened in the form of ring land failures. If the info had been passed along, there would have likely have been a design change made.

when my motor failed, the rings were definately trashed and the cylinder walls were glazed. as a result of the lack of ring seal, my ring 2nd ring lands collapsed and crushed the oil scrapers. I still have the block and the pistons and rings.

to make matters worse, another "he said, she said" is that there have been different rings supplied with the modmax pistons. some file to fit, and some pre gapped? I have heard of problems with pre gapped ones as well.

I just sent two of the failed pistons to Cali for CP to inspect at AT THEIR REQUEST.

I'm not blaming anyone or anything for my particular motor failure, I'm just sharing the info that has made it's way to me in the past week or so.

so it's just my .02

having said all that, there are obviously lots of trucks running around with CP / Modmax pistons with no problems whatsoever.


later,
chris

P.S. there are also obviously other possible variables to consider such as the quality of the bore finish, measurements, oil used, break in, etc.

 

Chris
getting those pistons back to CP was a great idea, I guess I should have done the same thing. I might still have them laying around here, will have to look.

My top ring lands rolled over on mine and that was at the 450 hp level. Yes there was some detonation involved but the bottom line is they should have never failed at that level. I have enough experience at this to know that.

As far as junk rings....I still have my second rings in a bag, they are conversation pieces. The engine machinists I showed them to have never seen such a thing .
Dale

 

no probs with my cp's. but we will see how they hold up

 

Diamond pistons are very good, they come complete with diamond rings and wristpins in a real pimpy looking box, everything looks top nothc and no chance of a distributor screwing it up with el cheapo parts.

 

My .02 on CP's

I have had a set in for a year now, and they smoked from day one. They only realy smoke at WOT or a hard take off.

Superfords, please let me know who you sent them to? I would love to find out if my issue was a build fault or if the rings failed? I bought the CP Pistons with Plasma Moley Rings.


Suavy

 

I've had CP pistons for 11 months of hard driving, dyno runs, & 1/4 mile blasts and I have absolutely no smoke at start up. I have a puff of very light black smoke at a shift during WOT, thats it. So far, I'm very happy with my CP's.

 

No more feed back?

 

Diamond pistons are in my VT engines shortblock

 

I've used two other brands of piston before switching to the CPs. I have never had one issue with either the CP pistons, or ModMax rings. The motor that I snapped the crank in, had been in the truck for 2 years, and was the same motor that I set the 11.69, 11.20, 10.78, and 10.48 Lightning ET records in. When the crank broke and I took the motor apart, the pistons, rings, and cylinder walls still looked new. The motor also never made noise or smoked. Same with my current motor, also using the same parts.

You have to keep in mind that there are MANY things that will affect a piston failing. Improper assembly, as well as improper tuning, can have a detrimental effect on piston life and failure. That's not to say that everyone who's had a piston fail had it happen because of that, but most of the cases where I've seen piston failure was not the fault of the piston.

Just my 2 cents.