Street Build? Cast or Forged Pistons?

Best pistons for a mild street build or even stock replacement?

  • Cast

    Votes: 6 100.0%
  • Forged

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    6

Nate’s Dmax

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Dec 11, 2020
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Hey guys. There is a guy another forum claiming that LB7 pistons were forged and not cast from the factory. Also claiming that with 20% over injectors and bigger turbo on an LML you gotta run forged pistons, that cast ones wont last. A moderator and i told him the opposite but he remains staunch on his opinion. Fill this thread up with info and i made it a poll so which is best? Cast or Forged?
 

2004LB7

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Dec 15, 2010
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Neither are better. It's application based.

Historically forged has only been good for performance as it's life was limited to the aluminum ring groves. Where as cast has steel groves that last longer so are more applicable to street use and daily driving. There are a few coming out with steel groves in their forged pistons. But I'm not sure how much, if any they are better as they don't have the history of the others to prove themselves. So... application dependant

Most run stock cast pistons on oversized injectors and turbo upgrades. 20% is not very big. This is more tuning then it is hardware for longevity.

And to clear any confusion. LB7 (all duramax's in fact) came stock with cast pistons. So, there's that

He might be confused with the LB7 and LLY pistons where made by Mahle. But GM switched manufacturers for the LBZ and later years

Because of this, and no option for anything but your two choices. I'm not voting.
 
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Bdsankey

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Feb 1, 2018
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Street motors get cast pistons IMO. The oval bowl piston design that Fingers came up with his unbeatable. They are proven to 1500hp+ as a cast piston. Now that Dynomite Diesel has an oval bowl nozzle pattern for them, they daily drive like an OEM piston in my opinion. Had Dynomite's nozzles been available when I built my motor, I'd have ovals in my engine.


Forged pistons will take more abuse but as pointed out, they do not have a steel top ring land. Also, you have to run greater PTW clearance since the forged piston expands much more than a cast piston.


As for some idiot claiming LB7s had forged pistons from the factory, he's full of crap. Also stating "you need forged pistons with 20% injectors and a bigger turbo" is also an idiotic statement.
 
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Fingers

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Apr 1, 2008
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Oi, all this again....

All factory pistons are cast.

Aftermarket cast pistons come in two varieties; OEM spec and slight redesigns like the Mahle race cast. Besides the steel ring land, the cast are more dimensionally stable. So they don't require the PTW clearance to accommodate piston growth. You want this for daily driving. If you make sure you have abundant piston cooling and your oil pump doesn't cavitate you should be good for lot of race passes too.

Forged are stronger, but lack the integrated oil gallery. They grow a great deal with load. They can be used in a daily driver, but there are a number of builder decisions and compromises that will have to be made. That would be a whole 'nother thread. In short, you pick where you want the engine to perform, and sacrifice outside that application.

The oil gallery is very important for long term reliability over a large range of loading. Yea, it keeps the piston as a whole cooler, but it is paramount to keeping the ring package cool. Without it, like in forged, you have to gap your rings for the worst case. With the gallery, you can keep the ring gaps a lot tighter and thus limit blow-by.
 

Nate’s Dmax

Active member
Dec 11, 2020
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I see Duramax Forum struck again, eh? I'll never understand what drives people to give (or believe) bad info like that.
That’s probably why I’m much more active over there. Here i dont have much to comment because its solid info from everyone almost and a lot more discussions that are above my level.😜
 

Chevy1925

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Oct 21, 2009
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Hey guys. There is a guy another forum claiming that LB7 pistons were forged and not cast from the factory. Also claiming that with 20% over injectors and bigger turbo on an LML you gotta run forged pistons, that cast ones wont last. A moderator and i told him the opposite but he remains staunch on his opinion. Fill this thread up with info and i made it a poll so which is best? Cast or Forged?

It’s really sad. The piston information that’s been posted in here has been around for years at this point. And yet you still get experts who don’t know shit.