Increasing BB CR
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 923
Likes: 4
From: Austin Tx
Increasing BB CR
The unassembled 454 I bought came with flat top pistons with 2 little relief notches in them. Were these stock pistons for a 73 454 vette and should I increase CR by using heads with smaller chambers and go ahead and use these pistons or trash em and buy dome pistons and use them with the 049 heads that came with the pkg?
Race Director
Joined: Sep 1999
Posts: 11,360
Likes: 382
From: Plano TX
Yes, these engines came with flat tops stock. With stock heads you're looking at 8.25:1 compression. I had the same problem on my 71. I used Edelbrock 100cc heads and got it up to 9.5:1. You could also use earlier closed chamber heads but they don't make the power of the later open chambers. If you are set on using factory heads you want open chambers and domed pistons.
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 923
Likes: 4
From: Austin Tx
I would like to go with aftermarket alum heads, but spending $1600 or more on heads will be tough, especially when I have a set of 049 heads sitting right there in my garage in great shape ready to bolt on. A set of dome piston is a lot cheaper than heads! Anbody else out there running open chamber heads with dome pistons to achieve around 9:5 to 10:1 cr?
Melting Slicks
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 2,131
Likes: 4
From: May help you? You can sure as hell try!
Got a set of Speed Pro forged pistons on Ebay right now. Hopefully the 0.060 oversize is right for you. These will work with closed or open chamber heads.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...RK%3AMESE%3AIT
I was going to go this way on a "play" motor I'm building but decided to go stroker instead.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...RK%3AMESE%3AIT
I was going to go this way on a "play" motor I'm building but decided to go stroker instead.
