come on nick, yes it is. Why didnt you jump all over PPE with their "new" manifolds that they "designed with garrett"? [read: ppe told garrett, "well meh we want something kinda sorta like this, if you can make it work somehow?" and then garrett actually did everything for them]
Exact same situation/circumstances...
The mahle engineers are piston guys, not duramax guys. They have no idea what we are doing with them, what conditions we subject them to, where the most stress is located on a piston in a duramax engine etc... Im not sticking up for steve and I have no dog in either fight, but to make a statement like that is kind of silly. Despite the fact that its "cool" to make fun of him [even though 90% of the people who give him shit dont know a thing about him or have talked to him on the phone/in person], steve IS a smart guy. I dont know for a fact how much or how little Steve actually had in "designing" those pistons....and neither do you. And neither will anyone else ever likely know because I doubt steve will come out and truthfully say how much or how little he had to do with those pistons....but whatever, thats his prerogative. If they turn out to be winners, who gives a shit who "actually" designed them. And if they turn out to be winners and steve wants to take all the credit for something that he "maybe didnt design", then all the power to him....that doesnt change the fact that they work or dont work.
Fingers designed his own pistons, and he isnt Mahle, Federal Mogul, [insert piston mfg here] so it IS possible to design pistons and not be a piston MFG.
Im neutral, I dont have any Mahle or TTS parts on my truck, but I just find it silly/sad that in reality, there going to be quite a few people out there who are going to dismiss these and not even care to learn about them/test them/see if they are going to be the holy grail of duramax pistons just because "oh its tts, yuck"
JMO.
Just rambling. Not speaking for Paint (Nick), TTS, PPE, Mahle, RDL, GM, or Garrett, but I have spoken with all of them for years now.
IIRC, Mahle designed the Dmax piston in 1999, dunno for sure, too lazy to do a patent search. I could be wrong of course, but yeah, you have probably run Mahle stuff.
Not sure how PPE fits into this, but:
How many times have you personally worked with PPE on new products? Or Garrett? Here's a head's up - I saw PPE design work on log style headers BEFORE Rick D Lance started working log style pieces. Remember that PPE was making stuff to put Dmaxes in boats before RDL hit the scene. RDL swore up and down that tubular shorties were the way to go. Ask him what changed HIS mind about it, and where he saw the data. No engineer would ever think a set of tube headers with short primaries would be worth a damn on a 4000 rpm engine, nor would an experienced hotrodder.
I realize you are from the Eastern area, but here's some stuff you should know:
PPE really does have a dyno they beat the crap out of constantly testing new stuff. For REAL. You might be surprised who doesn't run one.
PPE is a hardcore performance shop with a bunch of skilled employees. Not just a secretary and a shipping guy. They really do fab stuff from scratch and test from scratch. A lot of stuff. Yes, they really do work with Garrett, as I have personally witnessed.
Joe K is one of the smartest guys I know, a real nice guy. I can't remember ever hearing him say a bad thing about any competitor. PPE is such an easy target because Joe doesn't play the game.
Yes, PPE does repackage some stuff, just like all "full range" performance mfrs do. After they test. But they also have fabrication capacity, engineering capacity, and testing capacity. No matter WHAT you've read on the internet from eastern competitors, it's not a stereo shop that just relabels boxes.
You really need to consider the source and character of those who claim PPE isn't what they say they are.
I'm certainly not saying that PPE is perfect. I'm just tired of hearing them labeled a villain by many who are far more troubled. They are a GOOD thing for Dmax hotrodders, they have never tried to stop anyone from going faster that I know of.
