BME Forged Aluminum Pistons

BME Forged Aluminum Racing Pistons: Parts of a Championship

Homestead, Florida, final race of the 2005 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Points leader, Tony Stewart, in the Bill Miller Engineering equipped, #20 Home Depot Chevrolet, was set to win his second Sprint Cup Championship. Coming into Homestead, Stewart led second-place, Jimmie Johnson, by 52 points; third place, Carl Edwards, by 87 and fourth place, Greg Biffle, by 102. Tony qualified 20th, but Johnson started back in 32nd, so even if Jimmie won the race, Tony needed only a top-10 finish to go home with the Sprint Cup.

Finishing 4th at the 2005 Daytona 500, Tony Stewart went on to win Sprint Cup in the BME Pistons equipped, #20 Home Depot Chevrolet. Image: Goodyear/Aaron Vandersommers.

BME's strong showing at Daytona continued in 2007. The #38 M&Ms Ford is chased by a pack of six Chevys, four of which (#20 Home Depot, #8 Budweiser, #11 FedEx and #1 Bass Pro Shops) were running BME Forged Aluminum Racing Pistons in their engines for the Great American Race that year. Image: Goodyear/Aaron Vandersommers.

Seems easy? Not!

Once the race began, Stewart found the 20 understeered badly, or was "tight", as stock car racers say. When that happens, a car can't run as fast in the turns so, for most of the race, Tony couldn't crack the top-10. With Johnson's #48 Lowes Chevrolet running as high as 14th and Edwards and Biffle in the top five, the pressure was on Tony Stewart.

Half-way through the race, Johnson crashed. With the 48 out, did Stewart's stress ease? Nope. Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle dueled up front while Tony, now, not even in the top-20, struggled with a tight racecar. Nevertheless, a reliable, BME-equipped engine combined with Tony’s trademark tenacity and remarkable driving talent, great Goodyear tires and tweaking of the car's chassis by the Home Depot crew during pit stops kept the 20 in the points lead.

Edwards finished fourth and Biffle won the race. Tony Stewart finished 15th clinching the Championship by a scant, 35 points over Carl Edwards. "We were way too tight." a champagne-soaked Tony Stewart said in victory circle, " We could never get the balance quite right. It wasn't pretty, but we got the job done tonight."

Stewart worried about chassis set-up and stressed about Johnson or Edwards pulling-off an upset, but the parts he never thought twice about were pistons.

Why?

Tony trusted the quality and reliability of Bill Miller Engineering Forged Aluminum Racing Pistons. Eight of them were under the hood of his Home Depot/Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS.

Reliability in NASCAR

Stewart’s Championships in 2005 and 2002 and his Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year title in 1999 were just part of “Coach” Joe Gibbs’ domination of “Cup” in from 1999-2007 using BME Pistons. JGR, also, won the Championship in 2000 with Bobby Labonte and, since 1999, has won 51 races and finished in the top five 228 times. The performances of its drivers and crews has contributed to Gibbs being one the most formidable teams in NASCAR Sprint Cup racing. Another enabler of Gibbs' many NASCAR wins were Bill Miller Engineering Pistons.

Great pit work by the Joe Gibbs Racing crew and the reliability of the 20's BME-equipped engine, were two big factors in Tony Stewart winning the Sprint Cup in 2005. Image: Goodyear/Aaron Vandersommers.

In 1998, the late Dale Earnhardt won at Daytona using BME.

Success for BME in NASCAR has been with more than just Joe Gibbs Racing. The greatest driver of NASCAR’s modern era, seven-time Champion, the late Dale Earnhardt, relied upon BME performance and reliability to put the famed #3 Goodwrench Chevrolet in the victory circle at Daytona in 1998 and at other races in the final years of his career. Since 1996, six Sprint Cup Champions, Jeff Gordon (1997, 1998, 2001) Bobby Labonte (2000) and Tony Stewart (2002, 2005), along with four Daytona 500 Winners used BME Pistons.

At the 2005 Daytona 500, of the six lead cars in this picture, three of them ran BME pistons, the Home Depot, NAPA and Cat cars. That says a lot about how Bill Miller Engineering sets the trend as far as pistons in NASCAR race engines
Image: Goodyear/Aaron Vandersommers..

How did BME pistons win six championships, four Daytona 500s and numerous other races since 1996?

Bill Miller Engineering makes a better product.

In the mid-’90s, the first Sprint Cup team to switch to BME Pistons immediately gained 8-10 horsepower. In the cutthroat competition of NASCAR’s top series, where five horsepower is big difference, that’s an amazing improvement. Soon, other teams made the switch. By the end of 1999, all the top GM teams in Sprint Cup were buying BME Pistons.

What is it about a Bill Miller Engineering piston that offers the extra power, reliability and durability which gives guys like Tony Stewart a winning edge? To get an idea, go back a dozen years when Cup teams used another brand of piston. Back then, the engine shops at Richard Childress Racing and Hendrick Motorsports had trouble with “microwelding.”

In the mid-to-late-'90s, NASCAR engine technology was such that the heat transfer path was: from the piston top, to the top ring, to the cylinder wall and finally to the water jacket. In order for the piston to not overheat, this path had to facilitate adequate heat transfer. Those other pistons had ring land surface finishes so rough that heat transfer from the piston to the top compression ring was inhibited. That allowed the ring groove to get hot enough that microscopic, heat-softened pieces of piston material would weld to the ring. Once that happened, ring seal degraded and power dropped.

BME Pistons are manufactured in Carson City, Nevada. BME's factory is clean, modern and filled with the latest in manufacturing technology, such as Okuma Simulturn five-axis CNC machining centers.

The solution to microwelding is the higher-quality ring groove finish on a Bill Miller Engineering Forged Aluminum Piston. Superior manufacturing processes, using Okuma Simulturn CNC machining centers, and rigid quality controls hold tolerance for ring groove run-out to less than two ten-thousandths (.0002) of an inch, 360° around the piston. A BME Piston’s nearly mirror-smooth ring groove surfaces improve heat transfer. That reduces the peak temperature of the top ring, eliminating microwelding. Ring seal during the intake stroke is enhanced. That increases the pressure differential caused by the piston moving down on the intake stroke so the engine pulls in more air. More air means the engine can burn more fuel. The final result is more power.

Since BME Pistons are custom made, the company offers a wide variety of optional services. One of these services some NASCAR teams prefer is the option to purchase a unique piston design. This allows the team to have pistons of its own, special configuration. The specifics of these designs are known only to the teams’ engine shops and the engineers at BME. Teams using specific piston designs may be getting even more of a performance edge than the 8-10 horsepower discussed earlier.

BME makes 400-gram, Sprint Cup racing pistons for the Chevrolet SB2 and RO7, the Dodge R5-P7 and the Toyota NASCAR engines.


	Six views of a BME Forged Aluminum Sprint Cup Piston.

BME Pistons: The Drag Racers' Choice

Six-time IHRA Top Fuel champion and current NHRA T/F racer, Clay Milican has used BME Pistons in his Werner Enterprises/Knoll Gas Dragster for 17 years straight. Image: Goodyear/Aaron Vandersommers.

Bill Miller Engineering's cutting-edge technology and premium quality wins races in another motorsport which is a grueling test of pistons: blown-fuel drag racing.

Ever since legendary, dragster and funny car crew chief, Dale Armstrong, switched to BME in the late-1980s, many blown-fuel racers have used BME Pistons in their engines. Since then, in the Top Fuel and Funny Car classes of National Hot Rod Association and International Hot Rod Association competition, where 8000 horsepower, supercharged, nitromethane-fueled, 500 cubic inch hemis are the norm; BME products are the benchmark by which hard-core, racing pistons are judged.

In 2006, the IHRA Top Fuel title was won by Clay Millican using Bill Miller Engineering Pistons. In fact, Millican is a six-time IHRA Top Fuel Champion and has used BME pistons in his Werner Enterprises/Knoll Gas Dragster for 18 straight seasons. Millican moved-up to a full NHRA T/F schedule in '07 and continues to rely on the performance and reliability of BME parts. Doug Herbert’s Snap-On Tools/Red Line Oil Top Fuel Dragster and Bob Vandergriff's UPS fueler, also, run BME Pistons. In her final NHRA Top Fuel season before moving to Funny Car in '08, Melanie Troxel finished 9th in points using Bill Miller Pistons and continues to use them in her ProCare Rx Dodge Charger Funny Car. In 2007, Dale Creasy Jr. won the IHRA Fully Car Championship with BME Pistons. Over in the NHRA POWERaid Funny Car class, Mike Ashley drove the ProCareRx Dodge Charger to 5th in points and Bill Miller Engineering Racing Pistons helped him get there.

Bill Miller's BME/Okuma/Red Line OiI Top Fuel Dragster, driven by Troy Buff, is a key development and continuous improvement tool which Bill Miller Engineering uses to validate its Pistons along with the company's other products, BME Rods, BME Wrist Pins and the Gibson/Miller Mark II Supercharger. During 2006, the BME Top Fuel Team finished 15th in points, the highest finish by a team running a partial schedule.

What better way to prove you make the best blown-fuel pistons in the industry by running them in your own Top Fuel Dragster? Image: Auto Imagery/Dave Kommel

And then, there’s Pro Stock. “I bet you over 30% of the Pro Stock field run my pistons.” Bill Miller says. Anyone who’s seen the size of the Pro Stock entry list at an NHRA or IHRA event knows that’s a lot of cars. Five Pro Stocks using BME Pistons are: Larry Morgan's Dodge Stratus, Justin Humphreys' RaceRedi Motorsports Pontiac GXP, Steve Schmidt's Pontiac GTO, V. Gains Dodge Stratus and Kenny Kroetsky's Nitro Fish/Indicom Electric Chevy Cobalt.

Melanie Troxel, shown here driving the Skull Gear Top Fuel car in 2006, has used BME Pistons since her return to driving in 2005. She continues to use BME Pistons in the Funny Car she drives today. Image: Goodyear/Aaron Vandersommers.

How about Pro Mods, Econorails, Super Gas cars, Super Stocks, Sport Compacts...even bracket cars? Lots of drag racers in the NHRA and IHRA sportsman categories, wanting the same reliability had by the Clay Millicans, Mike Ashleys, Larry Morgans of the sport, use BME pistons to win races.

Two well-known reasons many nitro class engine builders choose BME Forged Aluminum Pistons are 1) their winning record and 2) their reliability. But, there's a third important issue and that's cost. Top Fuel and Funny Car teams need many sets of pistons because each of them has half-a-dozen or more engines. If the pistons are more durable, they will last longer and a team will need less of them. That makes the BME Piston not only a winner but also a great value. Image: BME Ltd.

Piston Tech Briefing

Bill Miller Engineering Forged Aluminum Racing Pistons are made with forged, 2618-T61 aluminum. BME has used 2618 for almost 25 years because Bill Miller believes it to be the best choice when strength and durability are the prime considerations.

Another reason racers pick BME as their piston supplier is attention to detail. This set of racing pistons is being built for Drag Racing megastar, John Force, but whether it's pistons for Force or just your average bracket racer, every Bill Miller Engineering piston gets the same care taken in its manufacture.

Many other piston manufacturers use a silicon-aluminum alloy, such as 4032 or MS75. Pistons made from that have good wear characteristics because the silicon particulate's hardness improves the piston skirt's durability, however silicon is, also, their downfall because it makes pistons brittle. Through extensive race track testing, BME found that silicon-aluminum alloys, because they are brittle, are prone to fracturing when subjected to extreme loads. The failure rate of silicon alloy pistons in severe-duty, racing applications is fairly high.

In the tongs is a BME raw forging that has just come out of the forging die. Just right of the piston blank in the tongs is a chunk of aluminum bar stock that will go into the forge on the next cycle. The forging temperature is 800 deg. F and it applies a force of 18,000 tons to forge a piston.

This gets worse. With pistons made of brittle, silicon-aluminum alloys, once a crack starts; it doesn’t stop until the piston suffers a catastrophic failure. In the rare case of a crack in a BME, 2618-T61 piston, once the crack reaches an area of lower stress; it stops, making failure less likely.

Sprint Cup racers are using BME pistons to win races with engines which must produce upwards of 850 horsepower, sustain speeds above 9000 rpm and do that for up to 600 miles. The choice of a strong and durable raw material, subtle differences in the design of the forging and precision finishing of ring grooves are just some of the reasons why pistons made by Bill Miller Engineering outperform and outlast virtually all other racing pistons in NASCAR Sprint Cup engines.

With its blown-fuel drag race pistons, BME takes durability measures even further by treating each piston to a very low temperature, hard anodizing process. As a result, BME Pistons, when compared to other brands, last about twice as long in blown-fuel, drag race applications.

Bill Miller Engineering uses state-of-the-art equipment to manufacture BME Pistons. Here a BME Team Member programs an Okuma Simulturn CNC machining center prior to a run of BME Sprint Cup racing pistons. The Okuma CNC equipment is used to machine ring grooves and to "cam turn" the piston's outside diameter.

The Bill Miller Engineering Forged Aluminum Piston line is focused on the types of products hard-core racers tend to buy. “I’ve decided.” Bill Miller states, “to concentrate my efforts on making high-quality, high-tech racing pistons for professional racers who compete in specific types of motorsport using certain types of engines. By focusing on a limited amount of hardcore racing pistons and making those pistons to order, we can give our customers a measure of performance, quality, reliability and durability no other piston manufacturer offers. We, also, can do that with very short turnaround times."

The three most important things about a Bill Miller Engineering piston are quality, quality and quality. Every step of the way, the manufacturing process at BME employs stringent quality control along with careful records keeping.

BME makes pistons for most Chevrolet small-block and big-block V8s along with the SB2 and the RO7. For Ford engines, BME offers pistons for the 460 big-block, 289-302W and the BOSS 302/351s. Bill Miller Engineering has Chrysler, late-Hemi-style, blown-fuel, blown-alcohol and Pro Stock pistons, along with parts for the older small-block Chryslers and the Dodge R5-P7, NASCAR engine. Lastly, BME manufactures sport compact drag racing pistons for Honda four-cylinder engines. Prices for most BME pistons are listed on our price page. BME offers a number of special services which are optional at extra cost. See a list of those on our services page.

BME makes no inventory items. All its pistons are custom-made to customer specifications or, in the case of race teams who take the specific forging die option, are completely unique.

Bill Miller Engineering prides itself on great customer service, accurate technical advice, quick turnaround of orders and high quality parts at fair prices. More importantly, everyone at BME, from the office staff, to the high-tech manufacturing specialists who make the pistons, to the shipping department and, of course, to Bill Miller himself, are intent upon great communication with customers.

Want proof?

Try this with any of the other piston makers: call and ask to speak to the owner. If you don’t get the reply, “Uh--he’s not taking calls.”, you’ll at least get voice mail. At BME, when you ask for help from the top, Bill Miller, himself, answers the phone.

That’s the sign of a great business--the one from which you should buy your next set of racing pistons.

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