how does my piston look?

[rupecopp]

What do you lot think this piston looks like?
Should I change it or just the rings?

Also other than original, and wiseco pistons what brands fit into a 02 ec200?

Thanks

[eff]

The Vertex pistons are well recommended. I just put one in my 250. How long has that piston been in the bike? Even though they may look good the metal can fatige over time.

[joey11]

The dealer I get my parts from said that the Vertex name was bought by Wiseco. He really liked the vertex, and now uses the Athena piston, which he swears are still made by Vertex. If not they are of equal quality in his opinion. He said the Wiseco's are forged and are not as tight on clearances because the need to have room to swell when they get hot. I am running a Vertex replacement in my O3 EC250 with good success and I'm ordering a Athena today for my 06.

[eff]

Wiseco and Vertex (via Dover Italy srl) are owned by Dover Corp. So it appears they are sister companies.

[Brian VT]

On that note, anyone know why the price varies per size (A,B,C,D) ?

[Rick]

That piston looks pretty good. How many hours do you have on it?

I know the 250 and 300's seem to have more pistons MFR's to choose from.

From what I've heard, Wiseco is the only MFR to make a 200cc piston from 1999-2004? I have also heard that the Wiseco does not make the piston in a over size, "A" "B" "C" "D"

If Mark or Steve could jump in here and clear this up, that would be great.

[skid jackson]

If you plan to keep the old piston be nice to the rings when you take them out. I pulled the top end off my 06 300 because I thought the piston looked kinda scored up looking through the exhaust port. Turned out to be normal wear ... live and learn. was told to slap new rings in there and go ride. I did not know wiseco rings would not work with the stock piston. I found out when the piston would not go into the jug. I bent one of the old rings and used the end to clean out the ring land on the piston. The usps seems to have lost the other set of rings that were being sent. So now I'm sitting here trying to figure out what I should do this weekend while 500 riders will show up and ride the biggest turkey run in new england taking place 25 minutes north of me!! 120 miles saturday and 80 on sunday. If I had been nice to the old rings I could have put it back together and at least ridden whilst the replacements were intransit.

[GMP]

Piston kits are relatively cheap. For the amount of time and work you put into a correctly performed top end job and cleaning, why not replace the piston and be done with it for another season? While it looks OK it may in fact not be as aluminum fatigues.

[Rick]

I'm with Glenn, do a complete topend and you'll have no worries. Take a few extra minutes to buff out the p/v parts to ensure smooth operation.

[skid jackson]

wiseco piston is too big. Needs .0027 clearance, mine has .001. apparently my jug has very little wear, so little that the wiseco piston clearance is too tight. It's the correct piston and the only one wiseco makes. Called wiseco to verify size etc. wiseco guy said the piston in hand should work in a new stock jug and thought maybe the original mfr tolerances on the jug might be off. i.e. jug might be a little tight. took it to two engine machine shops, both measured the piston and jug and both said .001 clearance. both said they would not run that piston in that jug. Jug has 70 hours on it. go figure ... blame it on the mobil one mx2t I guess. Waiting on a set of hopefully oem rings for now.