Rings and pistons

[alke46]

Hey guys, thought I would pick your brains and ask a question about pistons.

I need to re-bore my cylinders and replace with 1mm oversize. When I shop ebay for new ones I see two choices. Either Wiseco or ones from cruzin' images

The ones from cruzin'images look like stock pistons with 3 ring grooves and the Wiseco ones pictured only show 2 ring grooves.

Is this because of the newer technology? And finally, what are the opinions from the GSR people who are knowledgeable concerning these things?

[zed1015]

Do you have pic's of the Wiseco ad.
2 ring are usually 2 stroke and three rings 4 strokes.
I say the ad has a generic pic of a 2 stroke piston and the actual pistons you will receive will have 3 rings ( 2 compression - 1 oil control).
Personally i'd go for the forged Wiseco's.

[Nessism]

I've never seen a 1mm over Wiseco kit. Please post a link. Most guys go 3mm over bore to get the extra displacement.

[alke46]

I'll see if I can find the ad and post a link.

I didn't want to go to the 3mm over because I wasn't sure what all would be involved. Such as carb jetting differences or cam adjustments etc., etc., etc.

As you can see, I don't know what I am getting into, hence the 1mm oversize.

[alke46]

The 1mm oversize is from cruzin'images on ebay.

And yes the Wiseco is for a standard size as far as I can tell.

@zed1015, the Wiseco ad I was referring to is on ebay.

[Rijko]

Just curious Larry - why the 1 mm oversize on all 4 ?
(and not .5 oversize)
Are all 4 barrels damaged that badly, and what about the pistons ?

Over the years i have kept cylinder blocks (and the pistons) with usually 1 bad sleeve
and 3 good ones. Just did not feel right to throw them away.
A single sleeve can quite easily be swapped, which is a huge cost avoidance
compared to a re-bore of all 4 and the cost of a set like Wiseco, MTC, JE, etc.
For normal builds with a tight budget i do that.
For a GS1000 that i need to be original, too.

Same thing for a single cylinder re-sleeve with a new sleeve.
Companies like LA Sleeve used to advertise them.
They don't advertise the stock bore sleeve right now but i think they sell them
when asked.

[zed1015]

@zed1015, the Wiseco ad I was referring to is on ebay.

A quick glance at the Ebay ads all show generic pics of a Wiseco piston.
One is a 2 stroke piston and the other is a four valve 4 stroke piston.
Neither is a pic of the actual 2 valve GS1000 piston that you would receive which would have three rings.

[Nessism]

Wiseco makes +3mm and +3.5mm kits for the GS1000. Nothing else, as far as I can tell (I checked the Wiseco website too.)

I've yet to here of a bad experience with the cruzinimage kits.

If anyone knows of any other readily available kits for the GS1000, please share.

[alke46]

Just curious Larry - why the 1 mm oversize on all 4 ?
(and not .5 oversize)
Are all 4 barrels damaged that badly, and what about the pistons ?

Over the years i have kept cylinder blocks (and the pistons) with usually 1 bad sleeve
and 3 good ones. Just did not feel right to throw them away.
A single sleeve can quite easily be swapped, which is a huge cost avoidance
compared to a re-bore of all 4 and the cost of a set like Wiseco, MTC, JE, etc.
For normal builds with a tight budget i do that.
For a GS1000 that i need to be original, too.

Same thing for a single cylinder re-sleeve with a new sleeve.
Companies like LA Sleeve used to advertise them.
They don't advertise the stock bore sleeve right now but i think they sell them
when asked.

I took the readings on each cylinder per the FSM. Two readings in three different elevations and 16 of the 24 measurements was either at or beyond the service limit which is 70.08. I had bad readings in each of the 4 bores.

My limited time of searching on ebay did not produce any .5 oversized rings or pistons. That's why I felt like it needed 1mm over.

I'm going to take the cylinder and pistons to a pair of machine shops next week and get their opinion of what should be done.

I don't really want to throw a thousand dollars at a re-bore and new pistons (which is what I was quoted) but I also don't want to just part the bike out. I guess it comes down to how badly I want to keep the bike.

[650Skull]

Have had nothing to do with Cruzinimage Suzuki pistons but have with Yamaha XS650 ones. The Yamaha pistons are a very good piston and a guy i know who builds XS650's has installed 20 sets and a lot of others have installed them on their rebuilds. I have bought 3 sets. On the XS650 forum there is an ongoing thread from 2013 and no complaints with a lot of pics and comparisons.

Here is the cruzinimage web site and they have a lot more options and parts than they advertise on ebay.

GS100

https://www.cruzinimage.net/?s=GS1000

[alke46]

Thanks for that positive review of the cruzin image products. I only have used them for rings previously but I have not heard any negative reports on the company.

[Rijko]

I have done several GS1000 with the Cruzinimage parts.
The pistons have slightly bigger diameter differences than pistons like
Wiseco but since you have to have the cylinders bored that is no issue.
Company boring the cylinders should always bore to individual piston size.
No issues with those bikes, they run great.