At what point does it become necessary to use forged piston? Does a daily driver/mild street performance 355 or 383 with 9.4:1 compression that's only going to see a max of 5800 RPM's tops (every once in a while) with no nitrous need forged piston?

I'm getting ready to start buying parts for my rebuild. I talked to a few different people at a few different places that sell performance parts. Most of them told me that I might be better off using Hypereutectic pistons for what I'm going to do. They said they can offer a tighter fit then forged and don't expand and contract as much as forge do.

I drive about 150 miles a week. In the warmer months I'm going to drive this car probably at least half of those miles, if not more. This really is going to be a daily driver first, then mild street performance, that's why my build is so mild. If I don't need forged pistons, I'm not going to use them.

I want an honest opinion. For what I'm going to use my car for, can I use hypereutectic pistons?

 

i would say for you CURRENT plans...that hypers would be just fine. however...when you bought the car, did you plan on building a motor? my point is...plans always change. i know for my car i planned on just making kind of sleeper car with a cam that you couldn't really hear...well those plans have changed. so my point would be, do it right the first time. you never know what you may hope to do later on down the road and if you do it right now, your engine would be able to handle more abuse.

its your money though...that was just my opinion

 

For a mild build on a daily driver, the cast hypereutectic are usually a better choice. As you were told they don't expand as much as forged pistons so there is a lesser chance of piston slap when the engine is cold. They are not as strong as forged pistons but they are much stronger than the old school plain old cast pistons, and they are also cheaper than forged slugs. Just avoid detonation and you should be OK.

 

Thanks guys!