500 vs 512 from 400ci

WOW! I’d call that a dilemma. The difference in pistons are only .200. That’s not a lot IMO for what you were saying. Personally, the whole thing is about 12 cubic inches. Really nothing IMO. Even more so on a street car.

I myself would rather use the shorter stroke and longer rod combo and not worry about the .200 in distance on compression height. If there is anything to look at on pistons in this area, it would be overall height, top to bottom on the piston for longevity.
Frankly it’s all partly money driven, thanks to my fantastic government my local currency lost a lot to $$ and real inflation is like 35% so this whole thing is at least 50% more effectively that it would have been a year ago. I doubt that it will come back to normal so I plan to slowly gather the best stuff I can use for this and make it happen. I’m not going to give up that easy. I see that parts in USA are going up also. Tires alone are 250$ more that I paid last year for a pair. Many local people put cars for sale or are not planning to drive their cars this season because of what’s going on.

This makes me want to use proven stuff. If things go further I may not be able to afford building something like this next time around.
When I was talking to 440 source they suggested to get shorter rod taller piston combo on the street. 500 was definitely not what they’d recommend.