it occured to me a cheaper and easier route to go would be to leave the bottom end stock, but use a head with a 72cc combustion chamber...that would put me right around 9:1 CR...my question is, would the stock bottom end still be a problem as far as 500rwhp is concerned?

 

I went that route. With AFR 210's, stock bottom end, 210/224 cam, 9/1, 14 psi T-trim, and no aftercooler, I made 470 rwhp through a TH-350. I made that hp with race gas mixed in because of detonation problems. On pump gas, it only made 430 rwhp.

 

With Forced Induction, and most high performance upgrades, the most expensive route up front is usually the cheapest in the long run.

 

I thought about trying that, but it worries me to think I would sink that much money into a nice set of AFR's just to have a piston crap out on me and ruin one of them. Maybe I am off base, then again maybe I am just chicken, LOL. I am interested to see what type of response this thread gets, because I have had the same idea as you for a while.

 

The way i understand it, the weakness lies not only in the CR, but in the stock LT1 pistons themselves as they are prone to failure when subjected to detonation.

 

I wish I would have kept a reasonablly flat piston (forged) that way if I got sick of FI I could go back to a NA setup without swaping short blocks.

I don't know if you could find a blower dedicated piston like that though. Usually they are thicker in the crown but also dished for lower compression.