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Source for replacement pistons for my GS1000S?

  • Thread starter Thread starter terry
  • Start date Start date
T

terry

Guest
Well guys, by the blue smoke pouring from my poor rattley spare engine, I've decided to do a top end rebuild on the original "S" engine and put it back in my bike, so I've been trying to find a reputable supplier for oversize pistons, rings, gaskets etc for my 1981 GS1000S(T?) My local Suzuki dealer is obviously having a cash flow problem though, because he wants 2 arms and 2 legs for genuine suzi parts.

So I surfed the net and saw one US company, Pro-Flo, selling Wiseco big bore (1085 and 1100cc) kits for about $360.00 US plus shipping, which I thought was pretty bloody good for a complete kit including gaskets, wrist pins etc, has anyone bought a kit from this company, or do you know of another reputable company with similar pricing?

I priced a Wiseco kit for my bike maybe 5 years ago, and it was over $700.00 AUD back then, but I guess America's recent problems with those camel driving creeps in "The land of sand" has driven the Aussie "pacific peso" up to the point where we can afford to buy quality US products AND afford the ridiculous shipping costs! :twisted:
 
Pistons

Pistons

Hi Terry, no clue about the pistons BUT did you know the gudgeon pins are made in Taiwain. Found this out when i rebuilt mine which had only 28,000 klms on it. The death rumble from my new motor after 500ks was frightening. Went to Serco to ask please explain and there answer was a lubrication ploblem, not a bad answer for a splash feed part. Cost to replace $2000. Bronze little ends, rebalance, JE tool steel pins,barrels and rebore. 50,000ks later still tough See Ya
 
J&E is a superior piston in almost any way.If you can afford them thats the way to go. I quit using wiseco after seeing them come apart like a cheap watch years ago drag racing. J&E will make anything you want on special order. If ordering a special piston ALWAYS get 5....you may need a spare down the road.
 
Forgot to mention don`t forget cosworth.....thats the top of the line. They usually do not carry a complete line like others though.
 
Pistons

Pistons

100% right cbxchris you are not wrong about JE pistons but there are no off the shelf kits for GS1000's.
 
ive used wiseco pistons for my pickup rebuild and they are an excellent choice in my oppinion :)
 
I've got 1085 Wiseco pistons. 14,000 miles since my rebuild, no problems.
:D
 
I have MTC pistons in mine, 20 years and 80,000kms later. Availabailty is the questios over here. Wisecos used to be the most common and affordable. As mine is a 1080 kit, the 1085 is my next oversize :)
 
I am putting the same pistons in my 1000 that Keith used.

Which is happening as we speak Keith :)
I dropped off some green backs yesterday to cover it.
Looks like I may have a GS shortly.
 
I went thru Orient Express in NY for mine.
I have a 1980 S model.
I ended going up 3 sizes over stock, due to cylinder warpage, ok they were egg shaped and had to be bored.

I also got their stainless steel valves for about 1/2 what Suzuki wanted for stock valves.

I forget what I paid for the pistons and wrist pins......
 
Wiseco makes a good product and you'll be very happy with it. I haven't heard about MTC in about twenty years so I don't know if they're still around. They were big in Z1 Kawis. JE is owned by Carillo, I believe, and makes an excellent product but I think they concentrate more on car than bike pistons nowadays. They seem to be willing to do custom (expensive) orders though. The Wiseco kit should include the "gudgeon" (piston) pins and a base and head gasket, at least if you're going to a big bore, and those are good pieces. The XS650 crowd, of which I'm a crazy fan, likes Pro-Flo a lot. Good prices.
 
I was lucky enough to get a set of unused Cosworths for my bike years ago. Spent a few years trying to find rings for them. Finally ran across TotalSeal who were able to recut the ring grooves to accept a set of their gapless rings. I've got a spare used head, one new head minus the valve train, and a couple of new blocks. One of these days I'll put a topend together for my bike.
 
Wiseco are fine for street engines but come apart under severe loads of drag racing. Mainly the ring lands break. Thier pins leave something to be desired also. I recently(1-2 years ago) built a hayabusa using J&E`s. They were around 325.00. The quality is not there in the wiseco`s. The J&E`s come already wieghed and matched with polished domes and hand fitted pins(tool steel...not china junk). My thinking is if it cost a little more to go first class do it. BTW wiseco and J&E are owned by the same company. John at J&E is who you need to speak with.
 
Why is is that nobody can make a piston that will last a summer of dirt bike riding? I had one blow apart in my CR250 and it got gobbled up major. :( Over rev it once and boom.

Steve
 
I don`t know if they still do it but CR`s used to have a bad reputation of the rings hanging on the exhaust port. The simple cure was to move it slightly but honda got a lot of performance having it where it was. When your piston got slightly loose in the bore that was enough to hang the top ring.
 
I've used a few Wiseco kits. My last one (GS1000 1085) purchased in 1998 had a problem, in that the gudgeon pin circlips turned in their grooves, wearing them away.
Consequently, the pins were eventually able to pass through the circlips and eventually one damaged a cylinder wall.
This was after about 10,000 street miles.
The circlips were Wiseco ones fitted correctly, using only my fingers, no tools, so no excuses there.
I contacted Wiseco and although initially positive, ("We stand behind our product 100%") they were eventually useless, telling me to go back to the UK importer. As I didn't buy the piston kit from the importer, he was only willing to sell me a new kit at cost price. (?275, whats that, about $400?)
Wiseco wanted me to ship the whole kit back to the US! Eventually I persuaded them to accept that I could send one piston only as a sample back to their agent in the UK.
I had already sent them a whole load of digital pics, but the response from their engineers was "Derr, gee, I don't know how that could have happened"!
Finally they conceded that there was probably "some kind of material issue", but that as the pistons had done more than a couple of thousand miles, they couldn't help me.
Thats "standing behind our product 100%"? :x
It was the importer who took the hit on a new kit as a goodwill gesture (Vic Eastwood by the way, highly recommended) not Wiseco. They made another sale.
So thats Wiseco; Too fragile for racing (as others have testified), not durable enough for street use.
However I replaced my kit with an older (early 1990's), well used 1085 kit which had already done many thousand miles and was in lovely condition, and it seems to be going fine.
The pistons were a slightly different design, having no grooves on the top ring land.
Maybe some quality control issues have crept in at Wiseco in recent years?
Needless to say, I won't be buying another Wiseco kit.
 
hmmm, so if I don't get weisco then what should I get for my 78 GS1000? I was also getting the weisco 1085 kit.
 
I wondered this too. I came up with 4 options:

1. Use OEM Suzuki pistons, 1mm oversize and rebore.
2. Use a set of JE or MTC pistons designed for the Kwak GPZ1100/Z1000J which have 18mm gudgeon pins and will fit. They may need modifying.
3. Would Suzuki pistons from the GS1100G shafty fit?
4. Use the Wiseco kit and hope!
 
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