this may be a dumb ? but i dont know the answer so....... what are the benifits of better pistions.... i have cast pistion right know..... but when i get my new cam and heads i was thinking of replacing them... so what are the benifits... of say forged vs cast... or even domed, and dished

 

dished pistons increase the amount of air above the piston, thus decreasing the compression ratio. Never really seen domed, but I would assume they do the opposite.

forged are stronger than cast. As far as the benefits go, I'm not really sure, cause I've never used anything different than stock.

 

forged > hyper > cast

as stated, a dome will raise the compression, a dish will lower, and a flat top is right in the middle (i forget what the stock pistons were on the classics)

lightweight pistons will help you rev faster and higher, but require rebalancing. forged pistons will stand up to the rigors of forced induction and nitrous.

IMO, for naturally aspirated street performance motors a hyper piston is a great combination of quality and cost.

 

You can't just 'change' pistons while you're in there. That's something that gets done with a full rebuild. If you're planning on that, go hyper or forged depending on your goals. Otherwise, leave em as is.

 

Agreed. And if there is any possibility of nitrous in the engine's future, make that forged only.


Norm

 

Yeah, nitrous or forced induction and you really wanna go with forged. Hypers are good for n/a performance(they're a high silica content cast piston), but if you're really concerned about even n/a power then a GOOD forged piston would be better. They're much stronger so they can be cast thinner, and weigh less. If you plan on turning rpm regularly and are concerned about the top end power, then you want light weight internals, that way you're not robbing yourself of power and reliability