Best pistons for a 318 and other Q?s

[1974DartSwinger]

Ok . . .its about freaking time, i'm finally getting to the engine on my '74 Swinger. Hope to have it on the road for the summer and for the woodward dream cruise!

I'm working a stock engine that ran fine before I ripped into it. So far upgrades include:
edelbrock duel plane intake and 600 4bbl edelbrock carb.
Comp 268 camshaft with comp springs, stock retainers and stock pushrods.
Stock heads lightly ported (gasket matched and blended) by myself
hi-vol oil pump
headders (still got to make my mind up on these) into a 2.5 duel pipes
Trans is stock 904 with 2,500 TCI and trans-go stage 2 kit


My question is: I'm thinking about the whole "while I'm here" theory and want to order some higher compression pistons versus milling the heck out of the heads. I want a good street engine that can handle pump gas 89 oct would be nice. Maybe 300hp area? maybe more? hmmm . . . if it ran 13.9 I'd be happy


Whats a good piston 9.5:1 area for my 318? I'm seeing Keith Black and Speed Pro are pretty popular. Any pros/cons? well other than mancini is out of the 9.5 speed pros lol.

Also, should I go ahead and throw in new standard bearings in the rods/crank?

Whats the best gasket kit? Felpro or other?

 

[rumblefish360]

Check compresion heights of the Speed Pro pistons.
The KB slugs are designed for a zero deck application and would probably give you a it more squeezzzee than you wanted. I'm not exactly sure what the math would turn out to be.

A con to pistons besides the deck height is weight.