Whoever told you Carrillo rods are junk had no clue what they are talking about. Carrillo CURRENTLY produces rods for the majority of the NASCAR field (9000 RPM for 500+ miles with a 400+ gram piston!), several ALMS teams, AMA Superbikes, and more. They use their own high quality forgings and manufacture all their rods in Southern California.

If you are ever in doubt regarding any manufacturer, do some research and find out what major teams use each manufacturers parts. Teams who have millions on the line cannot afford to have parts fail. You will not find Eagle, SCAT, or Pauter rods in many if any professional racing engines. You many find some Crower, Dyers and Oliver rods in mid-level racing engines. If you can afford Carrillo rods, they are the best.

 

+1

I believe Carrillo were the industry leaders in both h & I beam rod design. The company was started in the mid 60's & has been industry leaders for decades while other companies just copied their design.

maybe you should have someone else build your motor. I would.

 

Hey guys, thanks for the info....I knew what I was told was a bunch of BS!!

It does say there rods are used in nascar right on the box, and are made in Socal. They are very nice and precision looking rods.

 

Nice choice on the rods! Carrillo H-beams with CARR bolts is the way I'm going.

Cant go wrong with Ross pistons either.

Should have a real nice, strong bottom end.

^..that sounds a little homosexual doesn't it?

 

I don't know who SeanC is, but I can vouch for the fact that Aby knows what he is talking about. He's worked for Nissan, Cosworth, and most recently Honda Performance Development.

 

Okay so its known that Carrillo makes the strongest I & H beam rod out there. Who makes the strongest piston? Or in your opinion which set of pistons would you mate to the Carrillo H Beam Rods?

 

Also off topic but what type of bearings do you guys use?

 

I have heard good things about Mahle, but that is only my uneducated observation.

 

The strongest piston isn't necessarily the best. For example, I could have a 500 gram 4G63 piston (very heavy if you don't know) that is stronger than any other piston out there, but is extremely heavy. In addition, a piston can be too rigid. A piston should be judged by the design and machining tolerances.

Who makes the best piston? You will always get several different answers, usually along the lines of "I've been running my ****** pistons for 5,000 miles with no issues." Then another will say, "Those same pistons blew up my engine!!!" As I said earlier in this thread, a good way to identify quality parts manufacturers is to find out who uses their product. I can tell you that JE Pistons manufactures pistons for professional teams participating in NASCAR, NHRA, ALMS, AMA Superbikes, AMA Supercross and more. NHRA Sport Compact Drag Racers Brent Rau (1400hp 4G63, and current Modified National Record Holder), Titan Motorsports (Pro RWD Champ), Jeremy Lookofsky (All Motor Champ and current record holder) all use JE Pistons. Need I say more?

In regards to other piston manufacturers:

Mahle: They are a mass produced piston and it shows. The box style forgings are not the best for high horsepower turbo cars, the most durable design is a "round" style forging. Their phosphate coating is only cosmetic, skirt coating questionable. The wrist pins are terrible quality (look at the rough finish on the ID, this is important).
Ross: Some people have had good luck with them. Haven't had much experience personally.
Wiseco: Good product, affordable.

 

Clevitte Bearings...
They are also used in the NASCAR...
Just completed my runnin...
So ill be giving it boost this week around about 2.2 bars....

 

Shows you how much I know

 

mahle manufactures a majority of the pistons for f1.....

are there any engines spinning J&E pistons over 20k in a f1 engine? not that i am aware of.

mahle has the largest design group assigned to solely designing pistons, over 200engineers....

even though their street piston isnt given the same attention to detail, i would use them over a ross or J&E any day of the week.

when we would run ross pistons in our engines in on the dyno for the nissan gtp & gto engines, the piston pin boss of the piston would crack after brk-in & ps checks. that never happened with cosworth or mahle pistons. the ross pistons never failed, they would just crack.

btw, those ancient 2v 3.0L v6's would pump out a restricted 1300-1400hp on 100octane @ the time.

a company i worked for used J&E's, they are alright, but they shouldnt be considered the piston poster child.

does your paycheck have J&E printed on it anywhere?

 

I was told they are junk by 2 big shops....I still do not believe it though

 

Another choice in pistons - Venolia
Another choice in bearings - ACL

 

You can get Venolia at JAM, If I remember correctly I read somewhere that Venolia makes pistons for domestics but custom makes the Evo pistons for JAM.

For pistons I'd go with JE. Coat the top and skirts. Ross ain't too shabby tho.
Carrillo rods. Manley and Oliver, also very good rods.
You usally get what you pay for.

Eagle rods are cheapest, but I've heard that they come out of the same factory that produces Tomei's rods. I think HELIX rods too.