In today’s increasingly popular second-hand market, car guys the world over can now assemble whole engines and vehicles without buying a single new part. Unfortunately, sometimes even the sellers have no idea what, exactly, they are selling, which can lead to fitment issues or worse. This has lead to companies fielding questions from these customers, eating up precious resources on secondhand sales.

That is why JE Pistons has put out a helpful video tutorial on how to identify their different types of pistons. This video will prove handy when it comes to buying your next set of second-hand pistons.

As Sean Crawford of JE Pistons notes, one of the more common questions sales reps hear is “What piston do I have?” as they bought the product second hand from an uninformed seller. Sean explains that any off-the-shelf JE piston will have several numbers printed on the bottom of the piston. These numbers are crucial for identifying what piston you’re working with.

The most important number is the PN, or Part Number, which starts with the PN abbreviation followed by six numerical digits. Then all you have to do is go to JE Piston’s website and enter that number into their parts search. This will also link you to similar parts. Simple as pie.

Custom pistons will only have a six-digit “job number” (located under the PN number on mass-market pistons), in which case you’ll have to call JE pistons to figure out what you’ve got. Just make sure you don’t confuse the 3-digit casting number, located at the bottom of the piston head. That is for JE’s use only, and won’t help you in your quest to uncover more info about your piston.

Check out this and other informative videos from JE Piston’s tech video section on YouTube.