The little 318 & Racer Brown's quality products

RustyRatRod said

Well, the reason piston pins are offset is to reduce piston noise. It does that by putting the piston in an ever so slight BIND which holds the piston tighter in the direction of thrust. So it's only common sense that if you free that bind up by reversing the stock piston, you'll lose that little bit of friction. Any time you lose some friction, you know what the end result is.

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100% fact. But that friction is minimal compared to ring drag.

IMO it’s better to not use a piston with offset pins and a 5/64 ring pack and use a piston with a centered pin and at the very most a 1/16 ring pack.

The difference in friction loss between the two is significant.

Plus the engine will run cooler (less friction, less heat).

Will you see it on the gauge? Not if you run a thermostat because it regulates temperature but it reduces the amount of heat the cooling system has to reject.