An automotive piston is a simple device – crafted from aluminum, it’s tasked with two simple jobs – compressing an air-fuel mixture to be set aflame, and not falling apart when said mixture catches fire. But there’s more to building a proper racing piston that just whittling a chunk of aluminum into the proper shape, says Wiseco Pistons‘ Keith Thompson.

The company has developed a process they call Armor Plating, which has been added to many of their piston designs and has been a nice addition to the product line. “It helps to stop microwelding on the rings, especially on many of the sport compact engines that use forced induction,” he says. It’s not a simple process to add the feature to the pistons, however.

“The Armor Plating process makes for a tough part. The part is semi-finished, then the plating process is applied, and then the part is put back into the machining center to have the final machining completed. This allows the Armor Plating to remain on the piston crown, and also in the ring grooves,” he explains.

With the immense heat that builds up in the ring grooves in forced induction and even nitrous-oxide-injected applications, a typical piston can have pieces of aluminum start to detach from the piston; the Armor Plating process serves to eliminate that from happening. The surface area of the ring land remains intact. An added benefit of performing the process on the crown of the piston means that combustion chamber temperatures are lowered as the plating keeps the heat from penetrating the piston top and lowers the chances for unwanted detonation.

Wiseco is also working hard to identify and expand its most popular piston lines with more fitments to best serve the customer – their proven ProTru Street piston line covers most domestic engine applications including Ford, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, and even Buick.