Piston selection

[Corndiddly]

Well I picked up a 87 roller short block this weekend. I have it all taken apart now and Im wondering whats a good piston to rebuild it with? I will be using stock crank and rods. Mods will be edelbrock upper and lower intake, gt40 heads (just exhaust ported) tfs upgraded valve springs, x303 cam, and long tube with xpipe. Any help appreciated. Thanks

 

[MustangChris]

what are your plans for this bad-boy? OEM block, i assume? With OEM crank and rods?

 

[Corndiddly]

Yes stock block with stock crank and rods. I plan on going supercharger in the future. I was hoping for 400 to the wheels with the supercharger. Will the rods hold up? I always thought the pistons where the weak point with force induction.

 

[shorty]

I thought 87 came with forged internals

 

[Hoseitdown]

Depending on the color of the factory oil pan...

 

[Corndiddly]

It was grey

 

[Raffaelli]

The block will break before anything gives out in the bottom end. Just use yor factory pistons if you can. If not use cheap speed pros. I did and aiming for 450-500hp on them.

Btw. Your motor plans will sound tough as hell, but x cam, stock compression on gt40s is going to be weak. Just a heads up.

 

[Corndiddly]

Got any suggestions? I don't have the cam yet. I would also like after market pistons so I get the valve reliefs right away.

 

[Import Slayer]

Trick flow stage 1 with a sealed power master rebuild kit with forged aluminum flats is a cheap start. 30 over would also be advised. The kit sells for 540 or so by summit.

 

[Corndiddly]

I planned on going 30. Thanks for the help. I wanna go around 10:1 compression

 

[lobird91]

Just wondering why you want to go .030 over. Would .010 not clean it up?

 

[Corndiddly]

It will make it into a 306. I read somewhere it should take all the imperfections out like tamper and out of round. Someone's correct me if I'm wrong

 

[Corndiddly]

Well I can't seem to find 4.030 bore on summit for the 1987 302. Can someone help

 

[Import Slayer]

Call the summit number they do have them I just got that kit. It had evrything the rings are already filed and you will want to get a water pump and timing chain cover gasket. And ditch the four gasket oil pan gasket. If you use that thing your just asking for trouble. The SN cars run a slightly different water pump than the fox cars. You might have to run a smaller CC head to get that compression from flat tops.

 

[Corndiddly]

I got a complete ford racing gasket kit so I should be good with everything. Do you happen to have the part number for the kit?

 

[Import Slayer]

Ill find the invoice when I get off today. The Kit comes with all the bearings need rings and pistons and gaskets. and a standard volume oil pump. the only thing that I didn't use was the four-piece oil pan gasket and the water pump gaskets.junk. but all in all it was a pretty good deal.

 

[Corndiddly]

Okay thanks

 

[wash]

10-1 and a supercharger?

You won't be able to run much boost unless you use race gas.

The most critical thing to ensure durability is going to be your tune.

The stock pistons will work fine unless you are detonating and then there is nothing you can do to save your engine as long as you have a stock block.

I would rather start with aluminum heads with large chambers. The chamber will reduce compression which will allow more boost, the aluminum construction will aid in taking heat out of the chamber which means less detonation/more boost, they are lighter weight which is like free power and they should flow better than stockers which means more power in any case. You would make more power with less boost and a more conservative tune and that means more reliability (unless you get greedy).

Make sure your fuel system is good too, you never want it to lean out. Also make sure your rev limiter works by pulling spark rather than cutting fuel.

 

[Import Slayer]

Damn I've looked everywhere for that invoice and no luck sorry man. But let summit know it's a 95 car and stock rods,crank, .30 over and they will short it out. I talked to Max and he seemed like a knowledgeable and helpful Guy.

 

[Corndiddly]

The gt40 heads will be enough with a supercharger to split my block and I will also be running meth injection with this set up. That's why I am going to be starting with a high compression

Damn I've looked everywhere for that invoice and no luck sorry man. But let summit know it's a 95 car and stock rods,crank, .30 over and they will short it out. I talked to Max and he seemed like a knowledgeable and helpful Guy.

Thanks for the help