Send a set to me Frank and I'll powder coat them Ford red. The scrub guys will never know! Chuck

Y's guys rule!
Looking for McCullouch VS57 brackets and parts. Also looking for 28 Chrysler series 72 parts. And early Hemi parts.

MoonShadow, 292 w/McCulloch, 28 Chrysler Roadster, 354 Hemi)
Manchester, New Hampshire

Hi Ted,

I, wanted to thank you for taking the time to answer my questions and for really going the extra mile down loading photos. Pictures are worth a thousand words for sure! Where would I locate these reversed semi-spherical pistons? Is it possible or even practical to modify a typical flat top piston? Is it a good idea to zero-deck height a y-block and is it ok to on a supercharged block?

I, rebuilt three y-blocks,not many :-) and I'm not clear on how I, would get all eight pistons to be equal in height? I, did a 312 for my '57 Ranchero. If I'm remembering the notes I, jotted down I had between .030 - .040 below the deck height. On a side note I run a factory dual quad on the Ranchero, .437 lift (mild cam). Car really goes down the road nicely...

Thanks again for the help and your interest,

Jeff Abate

Most custom piston manufacturers can put the desired type of dish in a piston if given enough information. If attempting to machine a dish into an existing piston, it’s important to first check the piston deck thickness to insure that there is enough material remaining after the machining operation in which to support the combustion pressure. On normally aspirated engines, I prefer a minimum of 0.200” of material and on boosted applications a minimum of 0.300” of material depending upon the amount of boost.

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The top ring land is also a consideration in that you want to make sure any machining to the piston top clears that area adequately.

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It’s still a good idea to deck the block even for a supercharged application. Besides insuring that the decks are parallel or flat, decking will help to have all the pistons at the same depth assuming the decks are cut parallel with the main bores or the engine was mocked up with its respective pistons in the bores and cut accordingly. I prefer the installing of the respective pistons and rods in the corner bores and then cutting the block accordingly. This can be performed without having the rings on the pistons and in many cases without actually installing the caps on the rods in which to do this.

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Zero deck or up to 0.010” in the hole with a 0.045” thick gasket will still insure a given amount of quench even on a piston that has a semi-hemispherical reverse dish. Making the dish smaller in diameter and then deeper would also help to increase the quench versus the larger dish shown in the pictures posted earlier. The piston blank being used may dictate to a large degree what you can do with the dish.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)