Piston selection

Import Slayer

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You really want around 8:1 for that setup not trying to dissuade you but trust me I just grenaded my previous 5.0 in my SN and it sucked big hairy ones and that forced me to build another motor faster than expected. No body likes spending time and money on a motor that in the end is going to have the same fate as my last motor. Get a DSS bare block and start with that as the "race motor" in the end it will be more reliable.
 

wash

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Sounds great until you run out of meth.

Think about it, why spend hundreds on an injection setup, more on windshield wiper fluid and still more on expensive pistons to get to a worse place?

What I propose is if your cylinders can clean up with a hone job just re-ring and adjust compression with cylinder heads which will be around the same cost as new pistons, a water/meth injection system and a bunch of wiper fluid. Then you have exactly the same power potential but you can get there with a milder tune. Just keep it fat and adjust boost until you get the power you want (while remembering that your stock block can't handle much more than 400 HP).

The people who break stock pistons are usually spraying lots of n2o or detonating. Too much power/rpm gives you cracked blocks and cap walk which forged pistons can't fix.

Forged pistons can't fix detonation either, they will just live a bit longer before they die. They might make sense for n2o but you've still got a stock block hanging over your head which will probably ruin your pistons when it let's go.

There is a good chance that a cylinder head gets trashed if your block let's go but if you reduce the risk by running a conservative tune that won't immediately detonate if your meth injection runs dry when you are under boost (clogs can happen to), you are more likely to avoid breaking the block and eventually walk away with an intact set of heads after it wears out or you get tired of limited power.
 

Raffaelli

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^ but he says he has to bore it. Hence my suggestion of cheap stock replacement speed pro pistons.

The 10:1 compression isn't needed without a blower or with a blower. The gt40 heads don't really flow enough to see a huge gain to be worth the risk of a off tune.

But they love boost. A simple powerdyne on a 302 gt40 headed car I worked on made 430 thru a aod. Stock compression. E.303 and a box gt40 upper.
 

wash

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He said he wants to I think, if he has to bore, different story.

I still don't see too much return on investment with fancy pistons or the rest of the rotating assembly if you still have a stock thin wall block that will most likely ruin your crank/rods/pistons and beat up your cylinder heads (bent valves, gouged chamber) if it let's go.

Not many things work out when they are done half way.

If Ford had put another 10-15 lbs of cast iron in the main webs and lifter valley, people would be going crazy on boost until their pistons let go or the rod bolts snap but Ford didn't so the hypereutectics are not the weak link.
 

Addermk2

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Anyone who tells you that you can't run boost on a 10:1 engine hasn't got a clue what they are talking about.
 

Raffaelli

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Wash- I think ford did ok. Very few stock motors can be taken to twice or three times their factory horsepower without instantly grenading.

Something to think about. And the 351 is every bit as strong as you would want it to be.
 

wash

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You can do just about anything to a stock 5.0, some things just aren't very good ideas.

Look at Ecoboost, that's high compression with boost.

Its also intercooling, direct injection, TiVCT, aluminum heads with detonation resistant combustion chamber shapes and heavy duty everything, not just pistons.

Then look at every other supercharged ford. Even the Terminator 4.6 has compression less than 10:1 despite an aluminum pent roof 4 valve chamber (very detonation resistant), an air to water intercooler and heavy duty everything.

Then look at a stock block 5.0 with forged 10:1 compression pistons, stock rods, stock crank, detonation prone cast iron heads, a supercharger, no intercooler but water/methanol injection.

Which one doesn't belong?
 

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In response to a few post above I simply said 8:1 compression would be ideal for a streetcar. and if my math is right with that head and the flat top pistons he would be around that. as far as throwing any amount of boost to a stock motor it all depends on the tune and the driver and how they drive their car
 
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Corndiddly

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Will smoothing out the combustion chamber help with the denotation? I am not a fan of putting 26 year old pistons back into a engine and running it. The short block has been sitting in a barn for the last 8 years and a couple cylinders are rusty. I will spend the money and put new ones in. I am not worried about running out of meth, because its not a DD. If the car gets 100 miles on in a month I would be surprised. I dont see the point of running 8:1 when stock is 9:1. Everyone slaps a supercharger on their stock motors with no problems running 8 pounds with no intercooler.
 

wash

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The combustion chamber is tricky, you have to maintain your squish area but that corner near the middle of the chamber could use a little blending (don't go overboard).

Look at the "heart shaped" chambers in good heads, you want something like that but I don't think its possible with iron heads unless you have N351s.

When people build a race engine for a supercharger, often they reduce compression to increase maximum boost levels. I've heard of race engines running 7.5:1 and maybe less but with really big boost.

With a stock block the ideal is just to keep it low enough that you can add boost until you reach your power goal. A stock block with 8psi gets real close to that point which is why so many people go that way, its easy and it works.

Going to a head with slightly bigger chambers just allows you more boost potential.

Its always better to run more boost with a conservative tune than less boost and an aggressive tune.

Another way to think about it is that your fuel/air mixture can only be compressed so much before it detonates and a high compression motor just has a smaller combustion chamber volume (by smaller chambers or piston domes), so if the total pressure in the cylinder remains the same (trading compression for boost), the low compression motor can hold more fuel/air mixture in the chamber without detonating, that means more power potential and if actual power is held constant, the low compression motor gets there with a more conservative tune.

I wouldn't worry too much about old pistons, aluminum does not oxidize as rapidly as iron, if they were not abused and the bores can clean up with a hone, the pistons are probably OK for a re-ring (ask your machinist).

If you want to prep your stock heads, I know there are some "stock" racing classes where "stock" fox bodies run 11's in the quarter with cast iron heads, search for what they do and copy (but they probably cherry pick heads with small chambers, you want to go the other way).
 
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Corndiddly

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Would there be a big difference in horse power between 8:1 and 10:1 with out the supercharger? Cause idk how long its going to take to be able to afford a supercharger.( Just started a new job today)
 

wash

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There will be a difference in power with different compression.

I wouldn't spend the money on dish pistons either, you can't take advantage of the bigger boost and power potential in a stock block.

Which brings me back to aluminum heads. What they lose with slightly lower compression (if you go for larger chambers), they make up for with increased air flow. Unlike pistons, they are re-useable and repairable if anything bad happens. Lastly the heat flow characteristics of aluminum together with better combustion chamber design make them work well with a supercharger also. A well chosen pair has no drawbacks beside cost and will be appropriate almost anywhere your build goes because one size fits many, you can compromise between what will work now and what you will do down the road without giving very much away in either build if you chose wisely.
 

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