Most of the County piston products are NOW made in .......yep you guessed
it; CHINA! They're cheap but you better check every possible dimension on
them. Also inspect the casting quality for fractures.
The days of quality parts are long gone. Many are not willing to pay for
quality so there's no demand for good parts, just cheap prices. Sad but I
too remember being able to open bearings up and also Hepolite A/E piston
boxes and they were superior to what is offered today.
The new motto is, "You get what you pay for..........and then only if you're
lucky!"
Russ Moore
-----Original Message-----
From: fot-bounces@autox.team.net [mailto:fot-bounces@autox.team.net] On
Behalf Of Glenn Franco
Sent: Friday, January 11, 2013 4:15 PM
To: Friends of triumph; 6pack@autox.team.net; spitfires@autox.team.net
Subject: [Fot] County Pistons Quality Control Issue
FYI
I am in the midst of a TR6 Rebuild with an engine that is .020" overbored.
While fitting up the pistons and checking clearances everything checked out
and the bore was concentric and to specs.
With the piston installed in the bore I noticed increased drag with #1
piston installed.
With rings gaps, skirt clearance correct I pulled the piston and didn't see
any issues.
Further inspection showed that the piston was cocked in the bore and had
score marks on the bottom of one skirt with the same wear just below the oil
ring on the other side.
After inspecting it with the machine shop we noticed that the ring grooves
were not fully machined on one side of the piston.
The rings would not move far enough in the groove and was proud of the
surface causing the piston to cock in the bore.
We collectively have not seen this before and have a new set of AE pistons
not County on the way.
Having spent many years in Automotive Engineering at one of the former Big
Three, these events are usually not one of's.
There likely are many more out there that ran down the line in the same
batch at the same time before it was caught.
These are new County Piston sets (I think made in Israel now).
I would inspect their parts very closely before you install them.
I also noticed machine chips in the machined groove of their Tri-Metal Main
Bearings (Israel).
The chips were in the machined groove and were plated over with the babbit
and copper.
I have had very good experiences with their parts in the past.
Just thought I would provide a heads up.
Glenn
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