phunk

I am not sure about the Arias pistons that GTM carries. It never occurred to me to research their options!

In most scenarios, the vehicles performance or reliability will not demonstrate a superior piston between an Arias and a CP. My personal reason for choosing CP is based on experience and conversations with machine shops who see the results of built bottom ends more frequently than any performance shop. I find a general preference for CP to be rather common... but I also never hear that other brands would be considered a bad decision. I have engines running over 10 years on CP pistons now... while that doesnt exactly give me a hardcore brand loyalty or speak of any other brand, I prefer to stick with what I already know works.

The greater expense you may notice of these pistons comes into play due to the custom construction / specs. To use a "off the shelf" pistons from CP, makes their pricing much more competitive with other brands.

CP can also be trusted to properly design these custom pistons due to their experience with the VQ engine. They have all the data to compare between the difference versions of VQ motors and within a 45 minute phone call with them, we were able to come up with the specs for a 10:1 piston that is going to work with both HR and VHR heads with no drama. I can also trust that their heavy custom VQ piston experience means I will not have any trouble with misc drama such as oil squirter clearance etc... which I could mention my first set of Arias for a DE motor did not consider, requiring custom machining to the pistons... although I am sure that problem is long ago corrected (my experience was 10 years back)!

I have just had nothing but positive experiences with CP, and I have heard the same from many others. It sure would be nice if the piston manufacturers would catch up to the trends and start offering shelf pistons in the mid-range of compression ratios, especially for all the E85 builds... but until then, its a custom build price.

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