PISTON HEAD TYPES AND

PISTON DAMAGES
What is a Piston?

A piston is a cylindrical engine component that slides back and forth in

the cylinder bore by forces produced during the combustion process.
The piston acts as a movable end of the combustion chamber. The
stationary end of the combustion chamber is the cylinder head.
Types of Piston Head

• Flat Head

• Recessed Head

• Concave Head

• Dome Head
Flat Head

The Flat Top with Valve Relief is basically a Flat Top Piston but they have small
amounts of material removed to keep the valves from hitting the piston when
the intake and exhaust valves are opening or closing. This allows for higher
compression ratios by allowing the piston to go higher into the cylinder head.
Concave Head

A concave piston head is a piston with a reverse dome. Pistons can be made
with flat tops, domed tops or reverse/ convex tops, which one is used in an
engine/piece of machinery depends largely upon the shape of the head or
area above piston and the purpose of the machine.
Dome Head

The Dome Piston Head looks just like it sounds. Instead of a flat top it has a
dome that looks like the top of a dome stadium. Piston Dome refers to the
amount of added volume on top of the piston compared to a flat top piston.
This added volume increases the Compression Ratio and therefore should
increase performance.
Piston Head

● Head type depends on compression ratio, valve interface, combustion

type and space, among other.
● It receives combustion gas pressure
● It also converts gas pressure (heat energy) into mechanical energy
● Piston Head receives most of combustion heat
Types of Piston Damages

● Piston Ring/ Cylinder Cuffing

● Normal Pistons
● Piston Dome Breakout
● Heat Seizure
● Piston Dome Detonation
● Cold Seizure
● Foreign Material
● Lack of Lubrication
● Piston Scoring/ Material
● Oil Failure/ Oil Flash
Damage
● Lubrication Conflict
● Piston Fracture
● Multi Failure
● Piston Scuffing
Normal Pistons

● Deposits vary from oil ash, brown, tan, to black/brown. Light color
denotes higher cylinder temperatures.
● Light scoring is normal, varnish from blow-by gas is normal.
Heat Seizure

● Excessive heat, over 1200F/650C EGT

● Lean (pobre) jetting or adjustments on carb
● Incorrect loading on propeller allowing excessive RPM
Cold Seizure

● Thermo-imbalance of piston and cylinder

● Lack of warm-up
● Excessive temperature difference inlet to outlet on engine.
Lack of Lubrication

● Excessive water ingestion causing loss of oil film on intake.

● Lack of intake air filter service.
● Results in excessive clearance
Oil Failure/Oil Flash

● High temp in engine from cooling system failure, fan belt, coolant
problems.
● Poor quality oils, auto, gear, unsuitable temperature stability.
Lubrication Conflict

● Mixing of oils
● Synthetic/Mineral
● Chemical reaction
Multi failure

● Overlapping seizures (Fallas sobrepuestas)

● Failure to repair
● Operator denial
Piston Ring/Cylinder Scuffing

● Oil breakdown due to:

○ Improper break-in
○ Poor quality oil
○ Lack of oil in mixture
○ Excessive loading of engine (propeller pitch)
Piston Dome Breakout

● Ignition timing failure, erratic firing.

● Lack of ignition damper, points engines.
Piston Dome Detonation

● Pre-ignition, leading into detonation

● Advanced ignition timing
● Spark plug heat range too high
● Low octane fuel
Foreign Material

● Material damage on piston from displaced or introduced object.

● Disassembly required of entire engine to find any additional
material/damage and locate source.
Piston Scoring/Material Damage

● Objects between piston and wall.

● Complete disassembly required to find source and all related material
Piston Fracture

● Complete disassembly required to remove all material

● Cause from excessive wear, excessive RPM with no load, excessive
clearance fitting.
● Carbon deposits found within damaged areas of piston, engine has run
after a previous failure.
● Failure threshold levels are reduced
Piston Scuffing

● Scuffing on exhaust side with no marks corresponding on intake.

● Thermal loading of oil film due to poor quality oil.
 THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION

Manthan Joshi: IU1641110037

Rohan Juneja: IU16411110054
Vatsal Agrawal: IU1741111170