well my '13 ktm 250 had only a couple hours on it when i pulled the cylinder and piston to swap it for a 300 jug. havent measured it but the cylinder and piston is still sitting in the garage. ill make it a point to measure it this week. service manual lists what the piston and bore diameters should be when new so i should be able to compare all the numbers and see what has happened after just a couple hours run time. ill have a update on this around the weekend
i did measure a coated wiseco from my honda after just a couple hours. i didnt like what i saw. clearance had damn near doubled. presumably because the coating had worn off. for what ever reason wiseco only coates a very few select pistons. personally i dont care for a coating and will likely remove it before the piston is installed next time
Do what ever breakin you want. ive tried a few different procedures including heat cycles and full bore right out of the gate. from what ive seen theres nothing to suggest a bunch of heat cycles offers any advantage. i dont see where riding like a old lady for 3 tanks of gas will do any good either although i havent tried it and never will
Wiseco forged pistons from the 250 s and larger single cylinders collapse rather quickly. Wossner has a lesser problem due to their thicker skirts but a typically much heavier than the Wiseco. The German Mahle pistons seem to be about the best forged two stroke pistons but they only make OEM pistons for the European built engines. The Wiseco KX, CR, and Suzuki LT500s will collapse .002" to .005" in one week end of hard riding. The pistons for the big bore 250Rs have a similar problem. I have gone round and round with Wiseco over this age old problem. They will not admit they they have a problem with pistons collapsing. They have tried to convince me that I or the customer is doing something wrong to make the piston's major diameter get small so quickly. They say it is ware due to dirt, improper break-in, the clearances too tight, the clearances too loose, the wrong oil, wrong oil mixture, the list goes on and changes each time I talk to them about the collapsing problem. The majority of the collapsing started back when they started making the pro-lite series of pistons and making the skirts too thin. It seems like they would revise their piston design rather than offering free tee shirts and hats, or offering me another piston at distributor prices.
A piston collapsing problem is very easy to monitor. Record the diameter of the piston skirt were the major diameter is located and measure the piston diameter just below the wrist pin. Run the engine hard for a few motos or ride it for a week end dune trip with the best oils, and keeping the dust out. Remove the top end and measure the piston skirts. The skirts will look like a new piston with out any scratches or polished areas on any of the skirts . Compare the dimension of the new piston and the piston with 2 to 5 hours on it and you will usually see the major diameter on the skirt
decrease .002" to .005" and the diameter of the piston below the wrist pin will
increase .002" to .005".