But in europe its best to get early b25 (85-87) pistons for higher compression(9.75.1), late model pistons (8.8.1) work fine aswell but just a little bit lower compression so a little bit lower performance.
The engine was built up with forged Mahle pistons and forged Pro Engineering rods, all new bearings, seals, gaskets, plus miscellaneous other little upgrades
I had a problem with my relatively new pneumatic pistons where the operation was both "sticky" and required a lot of force. I've since then lubricated a lot of pistons with this and now those pistons operate super smoothly, don't dry rot and in general are a pleasure to use. When I say "smoothly" I mean both by hand and via the pneumatic system! If your piston is slightly sticky you might have this experience where you need to pump a lot of air and then suddenly it shoots up/down with a bit too much force. After lubricating it's pretty linear. Pump a little, the piston moves a little. You can even stop midway somewhat easily without having to operate the switch like a surgeon.
For that 250hp version of the 3.0L H6, Subaru said premium unleaded fuel was recommended . After some years had passed, our dealership saw a few of those engines coming into our shop with cracked pistons. When pressed, the owners said they ran a steady diet of regular unleaded fuel.
Not true, many VW 4cyls came with forged cranks and pistons, the slugs in my TT are Mahle and known to handle over 400hp easily, the only things you need for a 1.8T to be basically bulletproof are forged rods and a new timing belt kit.
When I removed the oversize pistons from the PG block thought that the bottom skirt had came in contact with the oil squirters but looking closer looks like they may have been ground at the JE before delivery. They are all ground the same and seems at the same angle as well
This piston came out of my N52b30 with around 220000 km. It was kept pristine, ran it on thrice the volume of oil additives as per the forums recommend, along with 30/70 racing coolant additive to HOAT+ approved coolant. The car was being driven moderately hard, and not on smooth roads.
Only real issues I have had is with our 2020 Kia Sportage and oil consumption. Known issue. After having a misfire issue investigated we had a piston soak / cleaning done to see if that would improve oil use. It has remained at NO oil consumption in the first 1200 miles since that was done.
2012 B8 A4. Got it up to 400k km before the engine grenade. "Cracked piston " in cylinder 3.
Not very good. They tend to be rebuilder quality, at best. The often have a reduced compression height and are nothing really to write home about.
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