JE Pistons

[mnmasotto]

Does anyone have any good or bad experience with JE pistons. I am in the process of putting together a spec sheet for a Carrera rebuild. I am considering going with LN engineering Nickies with JE pistons (3.4 or 3.5). My mechanics strongly recommend going only with Mahle. Please give me your opinions.
Thanks, Mark

[Steve@Rennsport]

Hi Mark:

Well sir,..the choice of pistons really lies with your expectations of engine life.

JE's are good pistons but they were designed & intended for competition purposes and do not last anywhere near as long as Mahle ones do. JE's are inexpensive and offer greater flexibility for compression choices so thats why they are popular with racing engine builders.

Mahle pistons are far more durable, fit tighter, have less oil consumption, and their cylinders are tapered for less noise and improved top ring life.

If you expect this rebuild to go 100K or more, then the Mahle P/C's should be used. If you simply need this to go 50K or so, then JE's will suffice. We replace them every 100 hours in race applications where RPM's exceed 7500 for periods of time.

IMHO, your engine builder offers you some sound advice.

[cnavarro]

I have plenty of customers running JE's with nickies with serious mileage, in daily drivers, be it 911s, 356s, or 914s. There isn't an issue with fitment of JE's with Nickies as there is with JE's and Mahles with the expansion rates. With Nickies, the JE's work just fine. We know what the weak points are in the JEs for the street, so we stay away from them, so we order the pistons a certain way. We have never in seven years had a JE fail from a quality or manufacturing defect or deficiency in a set of Nickies.

[engguy]

I would also suggest looking at who is the real manufacture of the piston.
I have heard that some Mahles are made in china, personally I would not use any product from there in a quality rebuild. Sure they can say that the same quality control is used, but then again why does so much of it fail? Maybe the same qc is also used in toothpaste and pet food as well.

[Steve@Rennsport]

Originally Posted by engguy

I would also suggest looking at who is the real manufacture of the piston.
I have heard that some Mahles are made in china, personally I would not use any product from there in a quality rebuild. Sure they can say that the same quality control is used, but then again why does so much of it fail? Maybe the same qc is also used in toothpaste and pet food as well.

JE's are made right here in the good 'ol USA,.... (4032 & 2618)

Mahle's (forged) are made in Germany. (proprietary alloy)

Perfect Bore ones are made in the UK. (4032 & 2618)

Omega's are made in the UK. (2618)

Wossner's are made in Germany (4032 & 2618).

QSC's are made in China.


There is a LOT more to this subject than meets the eye so talk to your favorite engine builder to see what he/she prefers based on experience.

[Jeff Alton]

Steve, any experience with the Wossner Pistons and rods?

Cheers

[Steve@Rennsport]

Hi Jeff:

I've not used Wossner's components so no first-hand experience. If I were to use rods made in Euope, I would be using Arrow and/or Pankl.


We are testing some Omega pistons made to our specification and thus far, they are very good,....

[madpcar]

Has anyone used QSC and JE piston combo ?

[kenikh]

Originally Posted by madpcar

Has anyone used QSC and JE piston combo ?

Lots of folks. Talk to Henry Schmidt for experiences.

[Porschekid962]

Currently I (my dad's car) and running JE's with Charle's LN engineering nickies in a short stroke 3.3. Other than a little bit more noise on cold starts oil consumption has been better than with mahles so far. Only time will tell how they wear though. Remember there are a ton of options.

Pankl/CP pistons, same company, rods and pistons
Cosworth!!!! commonly overlooked
Arrow
Accralite
Mahle
Perfect Bore
JE
LN Engineering
Wossner
Carrillo
Pauter
Omega
Supertech Performance (not Henry)
Arias
JB Racing

There are a lot of combos, mainly rod and piston, not too many cylinder manufacturers. If your going with custom rods I think going with a company that can do the rod and piston is key since there is no fiddling around, they design the pair as a whole along with the gudgeon pin. Top two would have to be Pankl and then Cosworth.

Always have fun

[JeremyD]

I would recommend that anybody that looks at differnt combinations also take a very good look at the difference in expansion rates between the pistons and cylinders. Similiar rates in the nickies and JE's - difference in the JE's and Mahles. Mahles P & C's have similiar. Others?? I know even RUF had issues with their 3.4's = had a lot of cases of piston slap and high wear rates...

[Steve@Rennsport]

Jeremy:

Those special RUF 98mm pistons have VERY short skirts and with the rod ratio in those engines, have a tendency to rock in the bores at TDC and make noise.

The regular 98mm pistons have "normal" skirts and are very quiet,...