Hi All
I'm looking to beg borrow or buy an aluminium 8/1 piston.
I've just rebuilt a load of miscellaneous bits into a 6/1, amazingly it runs, albeit with a lot of vibration.
It started life as a 3/1 hopper cooled version, well according to the spec plate, which didn't look to have been previously tampered with. On wire brushing the fly wheels I found marks leading me to believe they (and thus the bottom end) are 3/1 and as such they would have been balanced for the smaller, less heavy, piston.
On balancing the crank and flywheels together I found them to be around 800 grams short of counter weight, (using a weight equal to that of the piston, rings, gudgeon pin and bearing, along with half the weight of the con rod hanging off the crank pin)
Rather than add weight I wondered if there would be an advantage to be gained by using the lighter piston. Certainly there would be less danger of launching a couple of pounds of lead around the workshop!
I'm In the south of France at the moment but will be back in the UK for the New Year.
As it is a bit of an experiment I'd ideally like something at the cheaper end of things!
As always any help, advice and comment is more than welcome
Cheers All
Stef