Rebuild

[Jim Shepard]

I'm getting ready to rebuild a 230 to put in my B2B. I want to go .60 over on the pistons. Question: where's the best place to buy new pistons? Also, should I replace the valve springs for GP? Makes sense to me. Where's the best place to get 'em?

[Don Coatney]

The machine shop that does the boring should know where to buy the pistons. A good machine shop would want the pistons in hand prior to starting the boring to insure they bore for a good fit. You might want them to buy the pistons for you.

I bought new valve springs from my local mom and pop auto parts store. The bubble pack stores probably have them but you need to find the right counter person to search them out. I recommend standard (not heavy duty) valve springs unless you are building a race engine.

[grey beard]

Bought several sets of pistons from Terrell and one from VPW. Both seem heavy on govt. surplus oem parts, which is just fine by me, after you scrub off all the cosmoline and junk they store them in. It's really important to have the pistons at hand before you go to the machine shop because the final fit is by honing, and they must have the piston there to get a perfect fit. My own experience is that if I ask the machine shop to get the pistons, I usually pay full retail pop rather than the more realistic prices charged by the vendors mentioned above. JMHO

[norrism1]

Bought my pistons, pins and rings from TRW

[48Dodger]

Find a good machine shop so they can help follow the numbers..ie bore size, tolerence, spring pressure, ..etc. You can still put it all together, it'll just be a better starting point. JMHO

48D