pistons, egge machine, & stuff
Buick str8's don't have very good pistons. This was probably obvious to Charles Chane about a week after he came to Buick. The only solution, at the time, was a total engine redesign. The only thing that came down to us as a result of that effort is the 263. If you line up a piston from each engine,248, 263, 320, it is totaly obvious that the 263 has a vastly more modern piston. It stayed up to date into the 70's. This gives the 263 a real advantage. All three still need major help for reliable, serious hi-perf efforts.
I started calling, emailing, everybody that not only had str8 pistons but could perhaps make them. Any info at all. Kantor, Maddog, Ross, JE, Badger, billet places, the works. Kantor was nearly usless. They get 'em from someplace. Won't tell me. Don't know anything about them, or won't say. "Just buy 'em, we know what were doing, trust us". Yup. Maddog is a clearing house. They tried to help. Perhaps Badger makes them for us. Emailed Badger. Zip. Nada. Ross; "you want what for a what!!" JE, Arais, same. JE did turn out to be a offshoot of Jahn's, a possiable! Basic jist, "if we have the tooling that will get us close enough the the bore size, it's possiable, but forget the top. Unless a flat top or dome will do". Billet places, "anything you want, any material, any top shape". Not cheap. The only drawback with forged or billet, they're going to be heavy, bullit-proof but real chunks. Hmmm
I'm in california. I ran across egge machine. I knew of them. They are in california. About 80 miles up the road. I went for a look-see. Well now! This place is WAY more than their catalog lets on! They have a nice storefront, and a lot of parts storage. But "back there" is a full-on machine shop, and foundry. They do a LOT of stuff in there! These guys are no joke. They make their own pistons. They probably supply other sources. They make str8 pistons. The alloy is A332 or F132, both nearly the same alloy. High silica, about 12%, Not hyperutectic but very good. All the old, bad features of the str8 pistons are gone. This is a good piston right out of the box. Better yet, these pistons will take a T6 heat treat! Egge does heat treat some of their pistons. With advance notice they probably would do it on a set of str8 pistons. Now we have a really good set of pistons, right out of the box!! Better yet!, with advance notice, they can/will fix you up with a set of semi-finished pistons!!! Why does anybody want that? So the piston can be machined up for moderen ring packages and whatever rings you want to use!!!! Send them the rings you want to use and they may do it for you!!! Yeah, YEAH!! Now we got some pistons that will take real power. If you don't care whats in your engine,well....It looks like to me that Egge got what we want. Buy Egge's pistons, it's going to be very hard to beat 'em. Alleycat