[crainholio]

When you're done deciding between cast or forged, you'll want to decide your target compression ratio.

And the post above about detonation is dead on right. To mitigate this, some builders (like me and the shop I learned at) apply three strategies:

1.) Quench area: use only 2 valve relief flat-top pistons, keep the portion of the crown that sees only head deck perfectly flat. 4 valve relief pistons put two relief pockets under the deck and increase risk of detonation.

2.) Skinny head gaskets: no less than 0.025" gasket thickness compressed, ideally in the 0.03x" range but nothing 0.040" or higher. Fat head gaskets open up the quench area and nothing good comes from that.

3.) Zero deck piston height: after you've picked your pistons, bring the specs to the machinist with you and tell him you want them at zero height w/ the deck surface. Most pistons are a few thousandths in the hole, again killing your quench efficiency. DO NOT have them above deck without accounting for it in your head gasket selection.

My last 350 came in at 11.2:1 compression ratio and ran 89 octane gas with no problem...ran a 13.11 @ 103mph in that configuration. 58cc heads, super thin SCE copper shim gaskets, and Federal-Mogul flat top 2VR hypereutectic cast pistons.