Mahle Pistons, Bad or good Options

[jimbot2000]

The whole AA piston catastrophic failure thread kinda scared me away from the AA pistons and cylinders, so I'm thinking of buying a set of stock Mahle Pistons and cylinders. So what do you all think of Mahle? Good? Bad?

Let the games begin!

[Cracker]

As a brand, generally they are held in high regard. A friend of mine who is a factory Ferrari tech uses them exclusively. I have a set of forged pistons (Mahle) in my build right now. Best wishes!

[audio_file]

I have a set of Mahle Eruo-spec pistons/cylinders in my 75 2.0, P.O. had them put in way back in '99 (but only a few thousand miles ago)... No complaints, that's for sure!! Lots of go (IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy11.gif)

[914Sixer]

Mahle is usually a good thing. Check to see where they are made. There have been some problems with the bus stuff made in Brazil. They lowered the quality of the main bearings they made. There was some feedback from Jake awhile back about the bearing problems.

[avidfanjpl]

I have a 2.0 Euro pistons Mahle boxed set with wrist pins in the oil paper and styrofoam under the bed.

Worth a fortune to me. Made in 95. Right on the box.

I will use them when I have to, but if not, then they go in my coffin as a knee roll.

Hell, they can cut off my damn legs and leave the box instead.

These are a thing of beauty. I pull the box out every month just to behold them.

John

[zig-n-zag]

GPR had a set of 2.0 Euro Mahles at a price I couldn't pass up.

I'm happy with the purchase, no regrets and no worries.

I share John's sentiments as well! For me, game over.

[euro911]

2.0L Mahles bored to 96mm with KB pistons in my 75's ' 2056 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I still have a set of Mahle barrels & pistons for an early 911T new in the box too (IMG:style_emoticons/default/piratenanner.gif) (bought them in 1978) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

[jimbot2000]

2.0L Mahles bored to 96mm with KB pistons in my 75's ' 2056 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I still have a set of Mahle barrels & pistons for an early 911T new in the box too (IMG:style_emoticons/default/piratenanner.gif) (bought them in 1978) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

Did you notice much a difference going to 96mm? I'm considering this. The crank that came with the car is an original crank and in great shape, so I'll be keeping that for now, but I did think of stepping up the bore size, if there is something to be gained.

[jimbot2000]

Mahle is usually a good thing. Check to see where they are made. There have been some problems with the bus stuff made in Brazil. They lowered the quality of the main bearings they made. There was some feedback from Jake awhile back about the bearing problems.

I'll get my bearings from another supplier here in Germany. I don't remember the brand just now, but it wasn't Mahle.

[reharvey]

I've had very good luck with Mahle pistons and cyl. To bad they are so hard to find.

[J P Stein]

Mahle makes gud stuff.

[jimbot2000]

That's a good looking set of 911 pistons. Mahle is really easy to find over here, ebay in Germany is full of it. I'm looking at getting a set of 94mm cylinders and pistons for my 2.0L. The stuff that's in it right now is Mahle, but it looks like one of the pistons met a valve awhile back, and the cylinders we're sitting installed in a non running engine for 5 years, and have some rust pitting on the bottom sides. Perhaps I could have the cylinders honed, and recheck them, but then I might need to have oversized rings. Does anyone know if I can get those? Thing is, besides the rust mark, and the little valve ding, all looks good. And I think it's been running since that was fixed as well.

A new set of Mahle pistons and cylinders runs 430€, so I'm still thinking it over.

[J P Stein]

From what I understand Mahle has a lot on it's plate and does Porsche PCs in "runs".
Porsche is a very small niche in their market, thus the runs. We, on this side of the pond, take what we can get which is not always enough to keep the Porsche folks happy.......then there is the expense. Mahle is sold in the US primarily by distributors like Andial. I was fortunate to buy NOS PCs off Pelican's classifieds for about half of what Andial charges....and I was damn quick about doing it.....bout 15 minutes after they were listed. I'll usually set & ponder spending 2800 bucks for a day or 2, but I know a deal when I see one. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Note the rings on the pistons. I had effed up a set of Nikasil clyinders using something other than Goetze and was thus in the market. OEM bearings are also a good thing.

[Valy]

That's a good looking set of 911 pistons. Mahle is really easy to find over here, ebay in Germany is full of it. I'm looking at getting a set of 94mm cylinders and pistons for my 2.0L. The stuff that's in it right now is Mahle, but it looks like one of the pistons met a valve awhile back, and the cylinders we're sitting installed in a non running engine for 5 years, and have some rust pitting on the bottom sides. Perhaps I could have the cylinders honed, and recheck them, but then I might need to have oversized rings. Does anyone know if I can get those? Thing is, besides the rust mark, and the little valve ding, all looks good. And I think it's been running since that was fixed as well.

A new set of Mahle pistons and cylinders runs 430€, so I'm still thinking it over.

Make sure the pistons you see are 914 and not bus ones. There are plenty of bus ones available.

[euro911]

Did you notice much a difference going to 96mm? I'm considering this. The crank that came with the car is an original crank and in great shape, so I'll be keeping that for now, but I did think of stepping up the bore size, if there is something to be gained.

Oh yeah, big difference. The pistons are KB, Raby spec'd cam, larger valves and higher C/R than a stock 2.0L ... it's around 120~125 HP? (haven't had it dyno'd yet).

[ape914]

2.0L Mahles bored to 96mm with KB pistons in my 75's ' 2056 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I still have a set of Mahle barrels & pistons for an early 911T new in the box too (IMG:style_emoticons/default/piratenanner.gif) (bought them in 1978) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

Did you notice much a difference going to 96mm? I'm considering this. The crank that came with the car is an original crank and in great shape, so I'll be keeping that for now, but I did think of stepping up the bore size, if there is something to be gained.

I did the 96mm piston option, (big bore) These are JE pistons, slipper skirt style.

Compression ratio was set to 8.46 The motor sure is strong, the big bore is noticably stronger that stock. I also have an Elgin cam, set up for stock FI forgot the part number right now, but they do a grind that works very well with the big bore and FI

ELGIN Cams...http://elgincams.com/

JE Pistons...http://www.jepistons.com/

Other than the cam and pistons, the motor is stock, and ran great. Very pleased.

a friend of mine has a simular big bore, unknown piston maker, raby cam, but to idle it has to be set pretty fast and you have to give it lots of gas to prevent stalling off the line. Not sure if that was a function of the cam or other things. He was told the raby cam needs to have the FI tweeked to work, which has been done, but still the idle has to be fast and you have to give it lots of gas to not die. He also has a hesitation at some rpms. Mine ran great without any FI tweeking, nice smooth idle, no hesitation thru the rpm range, no dieing on start.

With JE pistons and Elgin cam the car is very nice.

[krazykonrad]

Mauled have a great reputation. They were and still are oem for many good car companies.

[krazykonrad]

Mauled may have a Rep, but ment to type mahle. Fning kindle keyboard.

[jimbot2000]

Okay, I think I found a good deal here, so I ordered them up! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/piratenanner.gif)

Good news for your guys is that this is state side, so you won't have to pay the $60 sipping I did. However, all told I'm $356,00 into a NEW set of 94mm Mahle pistons and cylinders.

Mahle Engine Piston Set
94Mm
Cr 8:1
Euro Spec
Includes Cylinders
Std. 94Mm
Porsche 914
1973

I found them on Car Parts Discount

So if you guys are trying to build a good stock 2,0 engine on a budget, you might look over here. I'll let you know what shows up. I've heard some chatter about the Mahle main bearing quality out of Brazil (this and other threads) but I've yet to hear anything negative about the pistons, rings and cylinders from any source.

This is actually the same price for me as a set of 96mm AA pistons, but I really worry about those AAs. As much as I like working on cars (and I do love it ;-) I don't want to pull this motor out and tear it down over and over again.

When I was doing my little Austin Healey A-series engine, I had it out 3 times trying to solve an oil leaking problem. They have a very interesting rear scroll type seal that means there is no physical silicone seal. This equals nightmare! If you have even the slightest amount of positive crankcase pressure, it will start blowing oil out of the rear "seal". I discovered this when I had the engine block over bored 0,030" and used some cheep oversized piston rings. The spec gap for the rings installed was <0,007". With new rings I had ~0,020" Then I started this in out business with the engine. I had to tear it down multiple times thinking that this piston ring gap couldn't be the problem. After all I had 3 compression rings, oil control ring and a skirt ring on each piston, all rotated 180 out from each other, good compression, and good leak down results. What you can't measure with all of that is, what is the leak down when the engine is slightly above operating temp, and running at 4500 RPM. Well, that is when the oil started coming out. I discovered this by connecting a senstive pressure gage to the dipstick tube, then running the gage up to the dash (not so far on a Sprite ;-). I would drive around at different RPMs watching the gage, and jumping out to look at the bottom of the car always clean. It didn't go into positive until I got to 4500. Then I jumped out and saw oil dripping out of the bell housing. It also wouldn't build up any positive crank case pressure without a load on the engine. Eventually I changed the rings out for some "file to fit" rings, got all the gaps just right and not a drop of oil at any load or RPM!

So I'm a bit nervous about these AA pistons, I'd rather not take a chance with an aluminum engine.