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Old 12-02-2019, 12:28 PM
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Mr Anonymous Mr Anonymous is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Waynesville, OH
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Being an Olds guy at heart, beating on 455s and such for 30 years - there are two factory dish configurations, the higher compression, factory rated 10.5 to 1 have a 5/32 deep dish. The low compression 8.5:1 piston has a 5/16 dish - these are generalized approximations. No matter which of them you run, they will crack. Lots of cracks, up to 4 per piston. Thats 56-5800rpm, pass after pass on a balanced bottom end with resized rods and ARP bolts. So you step up to the L2323F TRW piston, which is a popular forged version of the higher compression piston, but it is very heavy - and falling out of favor to newer, lighter designs that don't cost substantially more. The combination of a not-great rod, and the heavy TRW piston often makes the big end of the rod egg-shaped over time - to where the rod caps are hard to get off.

For a stock type street engine, either are probably ok. But at the edge of their performance envelope, they are both liabilities.

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