Hi all. Just wanted to share something with everyone about lowering compression on a 6.5. I'm in the process of rebuilding my engine that spun the balancer and sheared the keyway off the crank and took a chunk out of it. I looked at buying a reman engine with the updated block but after researching the parts and checking my block I determined I could get more out of my engine by rebuilding it than I can buying a reman. I purchased a scat crank, main and head studs (ARP), and had machine shop go thru my engine. Cam bearings, freeze plugs, line honed, centerline checked, decks cleaned up, and painted. I have the infamous cracks between the valves on my heads but were never a problem. I was having a local head shop install coolant passage upgrade kit, do a 3 angle valve job and set all spring pressures and of coarse pressure test them. I was porting heads, and gasket matching myself. Anyway, make a long story short, I wanted to drop my compression ratio down to somewhere in the low 19:1 range. I didn't want to go to the 18:1 because I've heard they do get a little harder to start in the cold weather. I just wanted to add a little more boost but still have reliability and easier start up. So before I could have my rotating assembly balanced I needed pistons or mine dished out to lower compression. I emailed Kennedy diesel because I saw on their web site :

"Custom CNC machined dish design allows the compression ratio to be dropped to most any desired number. The dish design allows the piston to be installed with the factory spec protrusion. The dish shape along with 0 to +.oo7" protrusion along with a perimiter "squish" band, concentrates the fuel/air charge in the middle of the chamber, promoting more efficient combustion, and reduced stress on the head gasket. The domes are then ceramic coated for durability and heat rejection while the skirts get a moly dry film coating applied to reduce friction."

I asked John there if he had a set in my desired ratio in a standard bore? This is the email I received back from John Kennedy:

"An 18:1 engine will start fine in most any climate with proper glow support and tuning. I haven't done any of these pistons in quite some time. Too many requests for std bore tells me that there is too much desire to cut corners where they should not be cut. This also tells me that there are not many that would spend $995 on a set of properly built and coated pistons.
ANY quality engine build starts with a freshly bored and honed cylinder preferably with a TQ plate"

Isn't that nice? Cut corners? Can't afford? I was shocked when I opened this email. I don't know about any of you guys but if it were my business I would sell a customer anything they wanted. Especially in this economy. If I had a guy wanting to buy a set of pistons for $1000 I would jump all over it. If they are custom made there is no refund. If the customer puts them in and he has piston skirt slap because he didn't check his block then he bores it and I sell him a new set of pistons. I gotta say I saw red when I read that email! I was pissed. Like I'm a complete idiot. And a broke idiot at that. His words. This is what I responded to him:
John,
Thanks for getting back to me so soon. I understand that this engine can start in cold temps with a lower compression ratio. But on your website you say "Custom CNC machined dish design allows the compression ratio to be dropped to most any desired number. The dish design allows the piston to be installed with the factory spec protrusion. The dish shape along with 0 to +.oo7" protrusion along with a perimiter "squish" band, concentrates the fuel/air charge in the middle of the chamber, promoting more efficient combustion, and reduced stress on the head gasket. The domes are then ceramic coated for durability and heat rejection while the skirts get a moly dry film coating applied to reduce friction."
So I was asking for a reduced compression ratio piston in a standard bore. I just want to add more boost and do it safely. As for boring the engine, why do you assume that I'm not using a 6.2 bored to 4.057"? Why do you assume that I'm not using a new 6.5 block? Why do you assume that I'm a complete idiot and would pay $1000 for pistons, have the rods, bearings, cam, rockers shafts, rockers, intake runners, and combustion area on heads all coated, run ARP main and head studs, a stud girdle, scat crank, and fluid damper but not check cylinder bore taper and run out or have the block magna-fluxed and hot tanked and line honed and crank centerline checked? Every site I went to could not resource rod bolts for me or said reuse the old ones but I stayed persistent and found a set in Utah. Is this what you do to all your potentially new customers? Talk then out of buying your product? Should I have lead with I'm an ASE certified diesel technician and I have a 6.5 diesel with 20k on it and the only reason it's apart is because it sheared the keyway off the front of the crank and I have measured my bore and it has a taper of .0004" and a out of round of .0003" averaged? And $1000 is a drop in the bucket for what I have spent on this engine. Maybe you should ask someone what it means to ASSUME. Thanks for your time. I'll try to help ya out and I'll let as many people know as I can that they are too stupid, cut too many corners, and are too broke for Kennedy diesel parts.

I don't know, maybe he wanted to push the parts he already has on the shelf. Maybe he just didn't want me to buy his product. Am I over reacting? Just burned me up. So now I'm gonna have to call a different vendor and ask them if they want my hard earned money cuz he sure didn't.
Thanks for reading my rant. Maybe I should just throw my block and parts in the scrap yard and add to the dying breed of 6.5 owners out there.