70wayfarer
Well-Known Member
any one using 440 source forged pistons. what are your guys opinions on them. also what are their rods like. cheers
i can't speak for all kiwi's but i don't use chinese crap full stop. if i wasn't concerned about quality, i would just buy the **** and run it. i asked because i give a **** about what goes into my engines.I know you Kiwi's use a lot of Chinesium stuff since it's pretty inexpensive to ship to NZ. I don't know that those 440 Source pistons ARE from China but I would not be surprised. I'm actually surprised more Chinese 'performance' pistons don't show up here in the US.
I'm not a big fan of all that off shore stuff... good quality items are fine but so much comes over here that just won't meet my standards of fit and finish. My buddy just had a 440 done and he used some Chi-Com heads... visually they were fine but all the valves and springs looked pretty generic. His engine guy pulled a couple springs off to give them a quick look but never checked the machining or run out on the seats. Why spend $4,000 on a new build and cheapen out on the top end?
I have had my friends use Molnar rods and cranks that are off-shore but the difference is better macining and QC. One of my engine shops sez the same thing. If you are on a budget (like most of us) I'd look at Autotec/Ractec pistons... don't you guys have any NZ or AU suppliers down there?
their inverted dome pistons look the same as the icon ones i used on my 410 sb turbo setup. one of the reasons i asked about their pistons.I think 440Source uses ICON pistons in their kits. You might be able to buy the pistons from Summit for less money, just depends on shipping and stuff like that. 440Source rods are generic Chinese rods. Should be fine for 500 hp type engine. If you are going to push it harder than that then you might want to shop around. Lots of choices these days, especially if you use a BB Chevy style rod.