I'm building a stroker and now that Jeff at Leigh Machine is retired from dishing the Silvolite pistons, the best options seem to be forged pistons. That leaves me considering the Icon IC944, or Russ Pottenger's pistons. The Icons sit 0.024" below the deck, giving a 9.3CR and 0.067 Quench height with a 0.043 head gasket. Russ's pistons sit 0.008" above the deck (with a factory 9.450 deck height), giving a 0.043 quench height with a standard 0.051 head gasket. I can choose my CR with his. Supposedly 0.043 is the ideal quench height, but I'm a little concerned about reliability and longevity with such a tight clearance. If the block needs surfacing, that clearance goes down. If the head needs surfacing, which it will, the piston to valve clearance goes down. If the pistons start to rock in the cylinder due to cylinder wear at 150k miles, that clearance goes down. If carbon builds up on the pistons or the timing chain stretches, well, you get the idea.

I'm not trying to squeeze every last drop of power out of the Jeep. If I was, I would swap in an LS. I just need more wheel spin for sand so I can reach my destination. Reliability and longevity are the biggest goals in this project, and I'll be running the cheapest low octane fuel available. I travel alone to some pretty remote places in harsh environments, so reliability really is paramount. I can replace the ECU or any sensor, axle, or u joint on the side of the trail, but I'm not packing a spare engine in my pocket. I'm also not much of an engine builder, which is why I'm asking around. I tried some engine forums but it was pretty clear that my goals don't align with most engine building strategies. Over at Jeepstrokers, the answer is always Russ Pottenger, so I'm hoping to get some advice from a different crowd to avoid any possible bias.

 

On both my strokers, 96 motor into a 92 and 98 motor into an 01 i had the silvolite pistons hollowed out to the full dish instead of just the "D" to reduce compression. The 92 would ping once in a while when it wouldn't downshift on a hill or something...running 31's on stock gears. I might not have gotten the injectors properly matched. The 01 never pings or burps. When i started these stroker projects i asked my machine guy about "quench". He laughed at me when i told him this was normally aspirated and would probably never see much more than 3K rpm. He says unless i was up around 6K and boosted, no differences in quench would ever be noticeable...for what its worth.

 

As a sidenote..I have run 87 octane continuously for almost 20 years now between the 2....never a ping out of the 01

 

Is their shop only reachable by phone? Doesn't look like they have any online info except a real old Facebook page....