Hi, I'm currently building a 62 Olds 394 core for my 61 Olds 88 2 door sedan. It will be a mild street engine . I'm buying a lot of my parts from Tony at Ross Racing and I highly value his opinion, however I can't decide on what pistons to use in my engine. He swears forged are the only way to go no matter what i'm doing with the engine, I'm thinking stock cast. With custom forged the price is double for the piston and moly ring package but the compression ratio can be controlled to fit the build. The cast choice is the stock style 8:75 1 or the 10:25 1 pistons from Egge Machine. Would the stock style 10:25 1 piston even run on todays weak 91 octane fuel? I plan on driving the crap out of this car and even going cross country. BTW, I will be doing a 4 speed conversion on it also and have already bought the parts. I will chronicle it in my major build post. The 500.00 extra won't be a deal breaker. I would like to hear from guys who have built this family of engines and see what the feedback is. Thank You.

 

For a stock rebuild, I would use the cast pistons. I see no need for forged. Weren't the stock cast?

 

I would go with the forged piston something in the 9.5 range for today's gas and the iron heads on the 394. Just my two cents. Strong street runner on premium