[1]JE Piston's new asymmetrical piston skirt design.
Going against conventional wisdom or industry standards takes guts, and JE Pistons [2] has that internal fortitude. “It’s easy to roll out great new technology when you have done your homework,” says Nick DiBlasi, Technical Advisor at JE Pistons.
According to DiBlasi; “Most pistons are generally round and straight sided, and these work great for many applications, but the guys looking to get a little more performance and durability will want to consider these pistons that are deliberately engineered out of round.” DiBlasi explained the reason for making the piston skits asymmetrical; “This design allows us to make the piston lightweight, which has several benefits, like friction reduction. The design keeps strength in the critical areas where you need strength and removes material and weight in the areas where strength is not an issue.”
Giving us a more simplified explanation, DiBlasi explained; “The design centers around the piston skirt. There is a wide area on one side of the piston and a smaller skirt on the opposite side of the piston. This design is to accommodate higher piston side skirt loads. The wide skit is placed on the thrust side of the piston where the loads are increased during combustion. So it handles the higher loads while the small skirt side of the piston reduces friction and weight.”
[3]JE Piston's asymmetrical piston skirt on the left and conventional piston skirt on the right.
According to DeBlasi, what you end up with is “a high strength, light weight piston that improves engine longevity, increases power output while reducing friction on the cylinder walls.”
Breakthroughs in software that measures pistons that are out of round or designed asymmetrically have improved to the point where a reliable product could be developed and repeated without variances have allowed JE Pistons to design and do research and development that expands the current piston technology.
For more information on JE Pistons and their new asymmetrical piston designs, go to the JE Pistons website at www.jepistons.com [2].