Growing an iron piston

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Growing an iron piston

Postby AdrianL » Sun Mar 28, 2010 9:01 am

Gentlemen, some advice please!


I have a well worn iron piston / steel liner set up that I would like to 'revive'. Back in Britain we used to call this "cherry bombing". Heat the piston up to red hot with a propane torch and quench rapidly. The preferred quenching fluid was automobile green brake fluid. This had the special property of not leaving a hard carbonized layer on the piston. I don't recall what was in the magic green fluid that made it so effective. When I check brake fluids in the stores today none of them are green!

So, the question for you experts is this, what is a current recommendation for a good quenching liquid for red hot iron pistons?

Any advice much appreciated!

Best regards
Adrian Land
San Carlos CA
AdrianL
 
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Postby Jim Thomerson » Sun Mar 28, 2010 3:01 pm

Haven't done a piston, but had a contrpiston for a Super Tigre G20-15 diesel which had been ground down too small. Heated it for maybe 30 sec with a torch, with no glow or cherry color. Let it cool in air. It expanded enough I had to grind it down again to fit.
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