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Does anyone know if there is a difference between the car pistons and the truck pistons on a 226? I have both types of 226 torn down and I cannot see any difference. Kanter lists both a pass car and a truck piston with the truck pistons being more expensive. They are the only company I have seen that lists the two different types. I did notice that Ford made a piston change late in the life of the 226 and went from the 7HA-6108 piston to the 0HA-6108. The 0HA-6108 piston is different even though the dimensions seem to be the same as the 7HA. The later parts book I have shows the 0HA as fitting the 48/51 226 so it must be interchangeable. Could this be the difference? Did the pass car piston remain the 7HA?
See the excerpt below. I think you can infer from it that there were changes in the 0HA, sounds like in the piston pins and perhaps in the rod offset (requiring a specific orientation when installed). The offset if used would be very small, not something you can eyeball.
OK, it looks like it uses the same piston, car or truck. The guys at Kanter list the 226 engine parts in the same section as the 254 parts. They do this as many of the parts are the same. The pistons of course is one of the exceptions so they list them as "truck" pistons. Their on-line catalog actually lists them as 254 pistons. Mystery solved.
The difference between the 0HA and the 7HA pistons are obvious when looking at them but the rods are both the 7HA variety. The piston pins could be different in length though as the 0HA pistons have cutaways on each side where the pins are. The 7HA pistons do not and are completely round.