ROSS VS KB Forged ICONS

I'm getting ready order flat top pistons for my 440. I want forged units, and I want them as light as possible for my dollar. I can get either set for about $430.

The Ross units are 658 grams / slug.

The KB ICONS are 528 grams / slug.

The Ross units have thinner 1/16" rings whereas the KB ICONS have thicker 5/64 Rings.

I know Ross has a good reputation, but the ICONS seem to be getting good reviews and they're lighter weight. I believe the ICONS only have a forged head where the Ross are a true forged piston.

My applications is street / strip, no power adders.

Thoughts? Experiences with either?

Thanks, Dan

I'd go with the ross,if for nothing else the ring package.

im on the other side. had bad experiance with Ross, will never buy that junk again. i have the KB's in my engine now and are very very happy.

You might want to be sure both those weights are either with or without the pin. Apples to apples you know.

I was very impressed with the forged Icons we used in our 408" they were a tad heavier than some but the price was right....might want to dble ck those weights as suggested ^^^^^^^

Rickster

never heard of a partially forged piston.

my guess is the ross weight it w/pin, the icon, w/o pin

Call Diamond pistons and don't look back. Great people and service.

I don't know what the FHR-series Icon is, but the "race" piston they offer is a good part. I had a set, but ended up selling them because the block wasn't machined correctly for their bore size and I had to get it taken out to the next oversize.

The FHR weight you provided sounds waaaay too light to me for a stock-stroke RB application. The 822-040 Icons I had -- despite that they were advertised as being 686 grams + a 141 gram pin -- actually weighed 704 grams and had a 157 gram pin. The comparable Ross piston & pin combination is about 50 grams lighter.

I think they're both a good piston, FWIW, and am using Ross in my current rebuild.

I have a set of Ross just out of my W2 stroker and they ran awesome, and when I pulled them so I could street the motor at lower compression, they had a fantastic burn pattern. They are available, make me an offer.

I am in the process of replacing those with a set of the KB Icons in the same motor for a little lower compression. So far, I like both.

Icon IC836 709 + 141 pin
Icon IC822 868 + 141 pin
Icon IC968 685 + 190 pin
Icon IC837 709 + 141 pin

As mentioned by others, I don't think those weights are correct.

Icon is a good piston for the money, but they do tend to weigh more than a equivalent piston from Ross, Diamond or SRP. Been a while, but on the last 440 I built, they were about 50 grams heavier than those others named for a 440 flat top.

Just got done building a small block stroker and I found SRP's offered the best bang for the buck in my combination.

Thanks for the responses.

I'm taking the weights straight off the notes from the summit and jegs websites, so YES, there could easily be an error.

The ICON piston is PN: IC9953-30, according to Summit's notes, the piston itself weighs 528grams & and the pin weight is 102g, so that's 630grams total IF the notes are correct.

The Ross piston is PN 99539, and according to Jegs' notes, the piston's weight is 658grams (Pin not mentioned). Summit doesn't list the weight of the Ross 99539 piston on their site. So I could assume the 658grams is WITH the Pin, making it only slightly heavier than the ICON units, OR 658g is piston only, and Summit's weights for the ICON piston is way off.

** According to Jegs' website the ICON piston is 692 grams, doesn't say if that is with or without the pin.

I guess I just need to call KB and Ross to get the actual weights.
-dan

Most of the stories I've heard about Ross pistons are bad. The only personal experience I've had with them was with a 4.6 mod motor ford. Stock stroke and rod. Skirts hit the crank. I could understand this if it was a stroker deal, but stock?? Ran lots of KB stuff at the last machine shop I worked at. Other than having to shave some off the tops due to the lower deck heights of the magnum 360 blocks, saw no problems with any of their forged offerings. I also like the Wiseco PRO TRU pistons. Come with rings I believe. Not a nitrous piston but it is forged and fairly light. Small block offerings had 1/16 rings. Don't know what the big block stuff has. No opinion on Diamond. I like the SRP stuff though and the Mahle and CP stuff is hard to top.

I don't think all the icon weights are advertised correctly. I noticed they are very inconsitent weights as advertised. The ross pistons are much lighter. You can look on the ross website it lists every detail about every piston. I never heard anything bad about ross pistons but a few of the above posts. I would like to hear more specifics.

The Ross is 658 WITHOUT the pin and the pin is another 151 as I recall. That's actually pretty light for a stock-stroke 440 piston. Also, no manufacturer that I know of advertises piston weights with pins.

Those #s you listed for their FHR have got to be a mistake, since nothing for that combination is that light. You could check the KB/Icon web site and see what they have for specs, but I already know their info to be incorrect on the 822 pistons (as I posted above).

Icon does make pistons for the 1/16" ring package, might be the #968 IIRC. I've got Ross in one motor, Icon in another, and JE in a couple of others, no problems to report on any.