350 cast pistons question
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Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 559
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From: James Island South Carolina
350 cast pistons question
Thumbs up or thumbs down... I've got a '70 300HP 350 in my garage with 4 bolt mains, and .194 "041" heads. I'd like to put a Comp Cams XE 274 cam with whichever carb works best with the combo. I just want to get running again, and soon! My question is: this motor has cast (not hypereutectic) pistons, and only about 14,000 miles on it. Is this alright to do and run it fairly hard once in awhile? I won't be running nitrous, but I have a 2300 stall converter and a 3.73 rear. Thanks in advance for any advice.
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,711
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From: San Antonio TX
Depends mostly on what kind of rpm you're going to be turning and for how long. Cast pistons will take a brief shot to 6k rpm with a good deal of reliability but won't live long at much over that for very long. It greatly depends on the piston weight since the piston wants to continue along its path on the exhaust stroke and this tends to pull the pin out of the piston. Cast pistons also won't live long under severe detonation.
The factory used cast pistons in all but their special high performance applications so let that serve as your guide.
The factory used cast pistons in all but their special high performance applications so let that serve as your guide.
