Forged, cast, JE, Weisco, Crower, Bluebird, GTi-R, etc etc. What's the difference between all these types, brands, and OEM pistons and rods?

What about Swain coating the tops of the pistons what good does that do?

Since I have two bottom ends to rebuild, I'd like to consider doing some other things besides rebuilding it stock-like.

phew thats a lot of questions. Im sure theres a couple people here that could go into really deep detail about this stuff, but just incase no one steps up, I'll give you a quick run down...

"forged and cast" --
this refers to the way that that piece is made. cast is typically the way rods come from the factory, and forged is a step up in quality, able to withstand more abuse. also there is a step up from both, Billet. Billet is a solid piece of metal that was cut to make a solid shape, in the form of a connecting rod. they are the strongest, and most durable. a must for dependable high performance.

"Weisco, Crower"-
these are companies that make the parts. these 2 are pretty popular. Crower, from what I hear, makes very good rods. Weisco is a popular piston, they make tons of them for tons of different applications. Im not to familar with there import pistons, but i know for a fact there marine application pistons are quite good.

Basically it sounds to me like your looking for some high quality stuff and want to make sure its good. If I was you, I would go with crower billet rods for sure. Keep in mind, the sr20 bottom end is pretty tough stock. I havent heard of to many connecting rod failures. The connecting rod is the most beat up part in an engine, and should be the one part you never skimp out on.

Oh, and those coatings. Im not 100% sure on those, so you might want to ask someone else. Most everyone swears by them though..decreased wear, keeps heat off things..increases flow... a bunch of stuff.

Hope I helped you out a little bro.

BTW, nice car : )

Well, just from what I know from some of my classes...
Cast would be the weakest as your basically just pouring molten metal into a mold and letting it cool. You run into problems like porosity.

Forging is when you basically hammer a piece of metal into shape. This creates a very strong piece as it aligns the grains in the metal, etc.

Since you're saying billit is the strongest... my guess is this. Basically a billet is a just taking a big piece of metal and cutting away everything until you get to the shape you want. This in itself is not as strong as forging because you don't get the grain alignment. BUT, if they do it the way the make wheels.... you have a billet which you forge into the basic shape you want and THEN you cut away the excess. Since it was forged, it's stronger so the piece can be smaller and therefore lighter. Well, that's what I think anyways!

Also, shotpeening is good. I think our cranks come that way from the factory. Basically taking a bunch of BBs and shooting them at the surface of the metal. So it's like your forging the surface which creates a tougher and more durable surface.

Khiem

From what I have picked up about the GTiR rods they have stronger rod-bearing cap bolts, I think thats it...the blue-bird rods are exactly the same as the USDM rods...fordging makes the pistons more resisitant to detinaton...although there are downfalls to fordged pistons..they need a little longer to warm up, since they have to have looser wall clearences, they have to expand more, the cast pistons have .0004 piston to wall clearance, the fordgeds ones have .004-.006 wall clearence...so rings become more of a reality as well...

~Ryan