The Parts Bin: All About Hamilton Cams Forged Pistons

This is our inaugural post of a new feature we’re calling “The Parts Bin”. In this new feature, we’ll be discussing and covering all different types of parts you might want to use in your truck. In our first post, we’re discussing the brand new Hamilton Cams forged pistons.

Hamilton Cams Forged Pistons

These forged pistons are brand new, just release from Hamilton Cams. Hamilton is working to get new and additional engine products into the market, and this is the latest. These pistons have some cool and unique features we’re going to discuss here and we’re excited to use in some upcoming builds you’ll see.

A True Forged Piston for Your Diesel Engine

The first thing you should know about these pistons is that they are true forged pistons. These are extremely strong and can stand a lot more power than a typical cast piston. Hamilton has added a very nice teflon coating to the piston as well.

These come with a variety of bowl designs. These specific pistons are designed for a 6.7 liter Cummins and have a bowl designed for that engine. You can also get them for other engines, such as earlier common rail engines. Depending on your engine and injector, there should be a piston for you.

What is a Ceramic Matrix Piston?

When you look at the Hamilton piston from the side, you will notice two different materials. The lower portion of the piston is forged aluminum, and the upper part is very unique: ceramic matrix. Utilizing this material allows the piston to maintain its size at heat.

A typical forged aluminum piston will expand about .025 inches at 500 degrees. Even with cylinder wall expansion, you still need quite a bit of clearance for these types of pistons, which makes them very sloppy. With this ceramic matrix, Hamilton has reduced that expansion to .003-.004 inches, drastically reducing the required clearance.

Another cool feature about these pistons is that you can use a standard diesel keystone ring pack. Most aftermarket forged pistons use flat automotive rings. Not these. We’re excited to see how the diesel specific rings work compared to automotive rings in our upcoming builds.

Look for a Future Build With These Pistons

We’re going to use these pistons in a future build so you can see exactly how they perform. We’re excited to see how the narrow clearance performs. We’re a little nervous that these might just expand a scuff up the cylinder wall, but if other Hamilton products are anything to go off of, that’s probably unlikely.

Stay tuned for our future build. Follow us on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram for more parts bin episodes and for details on our upcoming engine build with these pistons. Leave us a comment below about what parts you’d like us to cover next.