A forged 360 Mag piston that comes in around 8- 8.5:1?

I plan to be able to run 93 octane which is pump gas here. Build will obviously be very mild. My goal: Gutsy punchy RELIABLE street only engine in my 95 2wd Dakota. No strip. Summer toy. Edelbrock 650 cfm carb (AVS Series) 727 with RMVB- appropriate stall, and eventually 3:55ish ring and pinion. 1st gen Magnum larger outlet exh manifolds with dual exhaust and inexpensive Walker Turbo mufflers.

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Cool. I think you’re putting together a nice little fun streeter. My advice is the same as above. Use the stock magnum piston and bottom end, put good hardware in it, rod bolts and main bolts. It’ll be more than sufficient for what you’re doing. If you want to do machine work and have to have a forged piston, do some math to set the compression ratio where you want it. Rarely does an off the shelf piston make the compression number they advertise. You can safely target 9.2-9.5 on 93 if you know how to set the timing up. In fact I wouldn’t want to build it at 8:1 it’ll be lazy off boost and that’s no fun in a street car.