its time to start playing with the forces of the dark side.

i've got a 396 block, bored to standard 402" 4.126 bore. forged 396 crank. factory rods w/ pressed pins. my heads are 820 casting 113cc oval port open chamber.

i want a piston in the 9.5:1 CR range with my heads. will see no nitrous or boost, so cast would be 100% fine by me, and fit the budget well.

does anyone out there have some part #'s they can throw out at me so i can see how much i'm going to pay? i have the speed-pro catalog but they dont show CR with different heads.

[This message has been edited by patgizz (edited January 27, 2005).]

You're not going to find much selection for cast replacement 396/402 pistons out there. Go with the 396 dome piston and not the 402, the 396 has a larger, fuller dome. You need to ask for the late 60's 325 or 350 HP 396 piston, should have about a 3/16" dome. Unless you deck the block and mill some off the heads you will only see about 8.75:1 out of those pistons. Other than that your selection for off the shelf pistons will need to be forged and your compression ratio options will be limited.

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Pat, have you looked at a PAW catalog? They have several pages of piston selections.

My brothers doing the exact same thing with the same heads on his 402. He's going with the Speed Pro L2240NF piston which are 396 350HP pistons but is almost exactly like a stock 402 piston from '71 (8.5:1CR). The Speed Pro's measure out at 21cc .182" Dome. Stock measures out at 19cc and has a .188" Dome. Using SMOKemUP.com I came up with 9.032:1 with a .025" deck height and a GM steel shim gasket (4.25 Bore - .022" Thick).

We're actually going to leave it like that since we have a set of closed chambered heads that need rebuilding to throw on later. Crossing our fingers we don't have any V/P clearance issues. For you to reach 9.5:1 your going to have to adjust your deck height or mill the heads or do a little of both.

[This message has been edited by Smokin71RSSS (edited January 28, 2005).]