When it comes to modern muscle cars, and the engines that power them, big power numbers are more common than ever before in human history. In order to support that kind of power production, you need solid aftermarket parts, like the forged pistons offered by MAHLE, made specifically to withstand the harshest cylinder pressures.

As has been the case since the dawn of manufacturing, there are some manufacturers who like to make lots of mid-production parts-design changes. While keeping up with those changes is part of the game for a company like MAHLE, it has gone a step further with this new piston design, creating a dome shape to work with multiple cylinder heads within the Gen-III Hemi family.

“Thanks to the interchangeability of the cylinder heads with different combustion chamber sizes, combined with different head gasket thicknesses, allows for a wide range of compression ratios to be created with a single piston,” explains MAHLE’s Joe Maylish. Using the same size head gasket, a difference of almost three points of compression can be had with a single piston design.

The dome shape is designed to work with early Gen-III 85cc 5.7-liter cylinder heads, the 2009-up 65cc-chamber heads, and the 74cc 6.1-liter cylinder heads, and the pistons feature a thinner 1.0mm, 1.0mm, 2.0mm ring pack and, like all PowerPak applications, include rings specifically chosen for the application. In this case, that’s an HV385 steel top ring, steel Napier second ring, and standard tension oil rings.

These pistons are forged from 2618 aluminum with a hard-anodized top ring groove, and then coated with MAHLE’s signature phosphate coating, along with MAHLE’s Grafal anti-friction skirt coating. In addition to pistons and rings, MAHLE also includes wrist pins and retainer clips in the package for an all-in-one solution.