I am thinking of going to the 11:1 and a stage 1. So I have the following questions:

1- What octane will I have to run?

2- What would be the performance gain(piped jetted, and proflow)?

3- Approx. cost?

4- What brands?

5- Pros and cons of this set up?

 

Hossblur- That is a good set up for a lot of go for not a lot of dough. The 11-1 will run on premium fuel most of the time. If you start playing in the dunes and shooting the hill you will need more octane. To buy a 11-1 piston, hot cam stage 1 and head gasket should be around 330 dollars. I would not use the weslico piston. I did not like the way it looks. The shape of the dome and valve reliefs looks like there would be quite a few hot spots causing detination. The overall feel of the weslico looks cheap after i have been around ross and JE. The JE would be a better chice than the weslico. And a Ross would be better than JE except i am not sure Ross has them on the shelf. The hotcams stage one is a good all around cam. The specs are better than 3 of the web cams, and no core charge. The mega cycles and toronados cost more for the same. I would use the HP (high pressure) head gasket over the regulars. I have seen to many raptors with leaking headgaskets to even think of using the cheaper ones. Do it right the first time.

The gains will be nice, you will not outrun the 686's or 730's but there are more piped raptors than built ones out there. You will be way ahead of those guys. If you got 8hp by adding a pipe/jetting and airbox mods you will get another 6-8 HP doing this simple 330 dollar upgrade. I see no downside to doing this.

 

14mins? What did you ever find out about that JE piston that had the hole in the top? I'm still curious of that before I go buying one?

 

I pulled my wiseco out after 2 months of hard use, and it looked perfect.........I wipped the carbon off the top of it and it was just as shiny as new!

 

I used a Wiseco for a year & it looked new when I replaced it with a JE. The more mods you do, such as larger valves, the more I would use the JE piston since they have a larger eyebrow to allow for the use of larger valves without extra machining. I seen them on ebay for a decent price but you can get them just about anywhere. I agree the Hotcam is a good deal too. Mine still looks new after a year.

For just starting out on the long road of engine mods I would start with the Stage I cam & 11:1 piston either Wiseco or JE is fine. Wiseco is cheaper. Check out my dyno pics with similar setup. Once you graduate to the bigger bores & higher comp then you'll have enough bottom end that you'll want to try the stage II to move some of the power up the rpm range.

 

Are you talking about the one from Raptor03's bike? That was from detonation.

 

flyinryan- the JE's with the holes in the top are most likely from detanation. The problem that people have had we JE's are the pins pulling out over time. JE even increased the length of the pin earlier this year to try to fix the problem. Even with that i would chose JE over the cheaper weslico. I would send the wisleco into a machine shop to dress the top of the piston. The ones that i have seen look like a nightmare fixing to happen. Weslico might work if you do not plan to build a high HP machine, But if you are going for the kill Ross is the best and then JE. I am running a JE at the moment but i will put a ross in shortly after seeing 4 0r 5 je pistons in Bob's shop that look like they were fixing to let lose.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-frown.gif[/img]

One JE in my 686 gernaded due to removing way to much material. I think it was 100 grams lighter than stock raptor piston. Was not a pretty sight. lol

 

I have the piston boxed up and in my truck ready to mail off but haven't made it to the post office.