I just received a VEC piston for my Husky 246 restore. OEM was NLA and I couldn't find a used OEM anywhere so I decided to get one of these. Outwardly it looks pretty good but the casting is maybe a little rougher than OEM and not quite as beefy in various areas. Notice the difference in the thickness of the skirt and the radius' used where the wrist pin bore is supported. One of my concerns was that the wrist pin had to be driven into the piston, it couldn't be pressed in by hand. I thought it might be a pin diameter issue but the OEM pin had the same problem.
In addition there were some dimensional differences:
In addition there were some dimensional differences:
- The wrist pin diameter was the same but it was 0.025" shorter than the OEM. The OEM pin will still fit and allow room for the wrist pin clips though.
- The top of the piston to the top of the wrist pin bore was exactly the same however the ring groove was cut 0.015" lower on the piston.
- The side-to-side clearance of the rod in the piston was 0.020" greater in the VEC piston (0.038" vs 0.018").
- They both weigh 50 grams so it appears they skimped on the skirt and wrist pin bore support and applied that to the top of the piston.