[Patrick G]

The stock glass pistons can only take so much cylinder pressure before they give up. Jet has added around 150rwhp to when his car was stock. That's a nice gain. To add another 150-200 rwhp on top of that will take very careful tuning if it's going to last.

Since nitrous burns the combustion event so much faster, we need to retard the timing so we still make maximum cylinder pressure when the piston is 13-15 degrees ATDC. If we don't retard the timing enough, max cylinder pressure occurs when the piston is close to TDC and the rod is almost straight up and down. Imagine trying to push a bicycle pedal as hard as you can when it's at the 12 o'clock position. That's what it's like when you don't retard the timing enough on nitrous. The piston does't have much leverage on the crank and you wind up breaking piston ringlands and more. The tune on nitrous is super important to make things last, but just like glass, the stock pistons can only take so much pressure before they too will shatter. A proper tune just delays the process allowing you to go a little higher before the kaboom.