[Brent Flynn]

I agree with you on pretty much everything you are sayin', but a cast piston will not stay in there near as long as a forged... ive got pistons(forged TRWs) in both my race cars from 1983 and 1985... very reliable pistons... i wouldnt even think to run a cast piston as hard as i do the forged ones... the rods dont bother me near as much as the pistons do.... i just hate to see him spend 2k on a set of alum heads, then, decide to run it up to 5600-5800 to get it to run, and have a piston failure and tear up the heads... it just seems that you'd want to invest in the rotating parts first if you are plannin on runnin it very hard on a regular basis... I just makin recommedations based on my experience... none of this stuff is cheap... you just got to decide what scares you and what doesnt... i wouldnt think that the cast pistons would hold up under the kind of horsepower that the alum heads have the potential to make... again, im not arguing, just stating my opinion

[screamingchief]

I hear you,,,they are flip sides of the same coin...

I've never seen a "true" cast piston failure tear up a head half as bad as a "popped" valve head will do,and that's especially true with a forged piston.

When you pop a head off one of those OE 2 pc. intake valves,it will typically imbed itself in the top of the "stronger" forged piston and just hammer the dog $#!t outta the head,and trust me it's not a pretty sight.

If that happens with a cast piston,then the piston typically shatters on impact and all the parts end up in the crankcase in short order and the head damage is far less severe.

So new valves are really not optional here no matter what heads get used.
And that's mandatory no matter what short block is under the chosen heads.

Typical "true" cast piston failures mostly involve cracking/breaking the skirts of the piston or breaking the ring lands,and rarely do those sorta cast piston failures ever result in any serious head damage or such,the only time that might damage a head is if the top ring land failed,and as such it broke loose into the chamber,but even then the head damage is minimal,as the piston material is aluminum,and thus it's much softer than the iron head is.

Most of the time when you see a fully scattered "cast" bottom end,99% of the time it was the cast rod that let loose first,and any cast piston failures were mostly collateral damage as the pistons were just an innocent bystander in all that resultant carnage.

Cast pistons usually dont cause those sorta failures,typically it's something else that's to blame.

Dont get me wrong,I prefer forged stuff too,but it's not always an item that's open for consideration,often it's use what you got or dont use it @ all,then what good is it doing?

FWIW

Bret P.

[Brent Flynn]

oh yeah... ive had valve decide to make 2 pieces instead of one...and i was travelling down the highway at 65mph when it happened... tore the sheet out of the cylinder and made shrapnel out of the cast piston that was in there... i wont use stock 2 pc valves in a new engine, whatsoever... No matter what he decides, i hope he has the best of luck with it... nothin worse than bad luck with these things...