building a mild Daily driver 318
Wiseco makes a good flat top.
I contacted them last month and they told me their piston was out of production and there would be a new one sometime after the new year, fyi.
From what I understand pistons are not in the OP's budget so won't be a factor in this particular build. Such strong opinions on some of these matters. I over cammed my low compression 318, kind of just to see what would happen and it ran great IMO. I wouldn't recommend that to anyone but it worked just fine for me, no issues. But like I said I am going the compression route now so I will see if it was really worth it or not.
I am also one that can attest to the 7.25 not holding up to abuse... I broke mine with a bone stock 318 and plenty of burn outs before the carrier exploded and threw a spider into the cover. I went 8.75 because of personal preference for the drop out center, but I paid quite a bit for an a-body unit with 2.94 open 741, and haven't looked at their prices in a while.