Recognizing MAHLE Pistons Finding Information Today’s Example- Dodge Sprinter This piston is an excellent example of both the features and quality on MAHLE made pistons.

Ideal Conditions: Brand New Piston! We are going to examine the replacement piston for the Dodge Sprinter van. It has many features to illustrate the technical merits of MAHLE pistons. Let’s start with the phosphate coating that gives the piston its dull black color as seen here.It protects the piston pin bore from scuffing upon start-up as well as against oxidation while sitting on the shelf plus lubricity to ring grooves. Also of interest is, even though you cannot see it, the piston pin bore is profiled in this application. What that means is the pin bore has a slight ovality machined into it. This allows the pin bore to operate in a round condition as the engine fires and can double the life of the piston compared to one with a round pin bore that becomes out of round during operation.

GRAFAL® Skirt Coating GRAFAL® Coating Reduces Scuffing Reduces Friction GRAFAL, a registered trademark of MAHLE GMB, is applied by MAHLE to reduce friction, reduce scuffing and allow tighter skirt to wall clearances. You might note that skirt to wall clearances are so critical today that measuring the piston, especially those with GRAFAL, is not an accepted way to calculate the bore size. MAHLE pistons are so exact that the clearance is correct if the overbore size is held to spec!

Ni-Resist / Armored Top Ring Groove Ni-Resist Top Ring Groove Armored Gallery Cooled Design Ni-Resist or armored top groves are quite common on diesel engines. MAHLE went a step farther and developed a gallery cooled piston. A cavity behind the groove is created by using a salt ring in the casting process. After the casting is done, the salt washes out with hot water leaving both the gallery and inlet and outlet. This provides for engine oil sprayed by a piston cooling nozzle in the engine, to cool the top ring and the crown of piston. FYI: Every piston is X-ray inspected to insure the gallery is correctly formed!

Identifying A MAHLE Ring Cooled Design Gallery Cooling Inlet You can identify a MAHLE piston with cooled top ring by looking on the inside of the piston. You’ll see a round and an oblong hole on opposite sides that allow the oil to circulate in and out., carrying the heat along and away from the top ring and crown of the piston.

Understanding MAHLE Markings Metric Diameter Minimum Skirt Clearance MAHLE Production Number 88.439 is the metric diameter of this piston Sp0.07 is the skirt clearance in mm ( adding both these two numbers gives you finished bore of the piston 88.509mm)- remember on all GRAFAL coated pistons, you finish to the bore size of, in this case, 88.509mm. Do not try and measure the piston and add the clearance, it will result in error! 004 56 is the MAHLE part number, not the MAHLE Clevite part number 02 is the oversize, referred to, in this case, as the second oversize which is .50mm ( approximately.020” -actually .01968”) S indicates a variation, in this case a “straight rod” vs. an “tapered rod”, you’ll sometimes see a “HA” suffix standing for Hard Anodized, but most of the time will see no suffix

Manufacturing Codes Front Of Engine Indicator MAHLE Production Markings The arrow, of course, indicates the front of the engine and the piston needs to face that direction when installed. The block M stands for MAHLE and means the piston is made by MAHLE 1239 is a plant identifier, in this case, a MAHLE plant in Brazil 07 06, indicates the piston was manufactured in July of 2006

Casting Number Piston Number Inside Of Piston Bore Size Range Piston Type Mold Number Mold Modifications Many times customers will only have this casting number from the old piston. Pistons that have seen long service often have the shallow top markings obliterated. In this case we know that this casting was: Used in a 88mm bore range L is the piston type, could be several other letters here depending on the design, material, mfg. method, etc. 65 is the mold used A6 is the change level, indicating the mold or the design has been altered 6 times in the life of the part Now, you can, if ever the need arises, take this casting number and go to: http://www.motorenteile.mahle.com:8080/eLIZA/mahle/query/product/byArticleNum. Once you enter the base # , in this case 88L65, it’ll tell you what the piston fits. This is very useful if a customer has a piston and no application- PS: thanks to Ray Falkenrath for the tip!

Are Aftermarket Pistons Different than OE? Sometimes! Gasoline replacement pistons are usually reduced compression ht. Diesel are more and more same as OE Oil cooled Profiled pin bores Special coatings Profiled shapes

Thermal Expansion: Piston w/o Profile Room Temperature Operating Temperature 19 MAHLE Industries, Incorporated, RDN, Wolfgang Rein, Feb-2008 © MAHLE

Temperature+Inertia+Pressure+Sideforcemax Piston Deformation Temperature Temperature+Inertia+Pressure+Sideforcemax [mm] [mm] Exhaust Valve Larger Deformation ATS TS ATS TS 23 MAHLE Industries, Incorporated, RDN, Wolfgang Rein, Feb-2008 © MAHLE

Improving Pin Bore Strength by Adjustments of the Pin Bore Geometry 28 MAHLE Industries, Incorporated, RDN, Wolfgang Rein, Feb-2008 © MAHLE

Due to Single Ovality in the Pin Bore Increase of lifetime Due to Single Ovality in the Pin Bore 29 MAHLE Industries, Incorporated, RDN, Wolfgang Rein, Feb-2008 © MAHLE

Using the Web http://www.motorenteile.mahle.com/eLIZA/mahle/query/engine/byParams

Pistons/Cylinders/Kit sets Piston and pin dimensions in mm KH-comp height UH-dome height VT-valve recess MO-comb chamber diameter GL-total length AA-distance between pin bosses

Piston/Cylinders/Kit sets Piston ring mounting-shown in listing ring width in mm Cylinderbore in mm Piston with rings,pin and clips-part number

Piston/Cylinders/Kit sets Liner part number Assembly part number Piston head configuration

Piston/Cylinders/Kit sets Liner dimensions in mm

Practice

Dodge Sprinter / Mercedes Benz Summary MAHLE 224-3364 Dodge Sprinter / Mercedes Benz Phosphate Coating Oval Profiled Piston Pin Bore GRAPHAL® Coated Skirt Ni-Resist / Armored Top Ring Grove Cooled Top Ring Design Comes With Rings Installed In summary, you notice this piston has the combustion chamber located in the crown, obviously a diesel. You, also notice the 4 valve reliefs and the face it comes W/R, with rings already installed.

Contact Information http://www.mahleclevite.com/askclevite.asp http://www.mahle- aftermarket.com/C12570B3006C0D49/CurrentBaseLink/W26MNK9W508S TULEN http://catalog.mahleclevite.com/

Questions?? Bill.mcknight@us.mahle.com 800-338-8787-7895 419-689-2611