I'm looking at piston sets on the internet. What's the difference between

Dome Pistons
Flat Top Pistons
Dish Pistons with a trough?
Step Head Pistons
And whether or not they have valve reliefs or not.

And also which one is more of the performance cause they all say performance. And would I want valve reliefs? Also I'm thinking I'll bore my 360 block about .030 just something different. What would u recommend and thoughts and opinions

 

Different styles yield different compression ratios. Some are manufactured without valve reliefs for one of two reasons: 1. They expect you to cut your own. 2. They are low compression pistons, and are in no danger of hitting the valves.

You need to decide first how much power you are looking at getting out of the engine, and where you want that power to develop. For a truck, low-end grunt, and mid range is where you want it. Bear in mind, that means that you aren't going to see really huge horsepower numbers.

Once you figger out what you really want/need, pick parts that ALL cooperate in that RPM range. Mixing and matching parts only means you will have an engine that doesn't perform well in ANY rpm range.

 

Ok the ones I'm looking at are KB flat too with valve reliefs

Material: hypereutectic alunminum
Compression distance (in): 1.675
Piston head volume: +5.00cc
Wrist pin: press fit or floating
Pin diameter: .984in
Bore: 4.060in

What would be the thoughts in this? And when I go to buy heads what to look for?

 

You need a plan first. Like hey you said where do you want your power and what do you want to do with it.

Without a clear goal in mind before looking at any parts you will just got lost in the sea

 

I want something makes power. I wanna be able to put plp back in the seat when they're not suspecting it. And no actually reason or nothing I'll do with the truck. But I would like some tourpue. So I'm looking at about 2500-4000rpm range.

 

Do you care what octane gas you have to use?

 

Nope ha why?

 

Also when I buy the piston ring sets, besides maching up all the bores and thickness wgat else do I look for

 

One more question. I'm looking to but the EQ monster heads off eBay. On the description it says if the cam is over .525 lift then I need adjustable rockers.
On the cam it's a .545 lift but it says that's with factory rockers? Would it be ok to use factory then?

 

Depends on the cam. Some of them are reground cams, so, the base circle is smaller. Stock pushrods/rockers will give you improper valvetrain geometry... thus, the need for the adjustable rockers. Referring to the 'stock rockers', is just referring to the rocker ratio. (stock is 1.6:1) You can make your cam think its bigger by going to a higher ratio rocker. (1.7:1)

Monster heads have bigger valves. They are more mid- to upper RPM range heads. Smaller (stock) valves promote high flow velocity at lower RPM, for better cylinder filling. Thus, better bottom end grunt.

Link to the cam?

For pistons, and octane....... Stock compression is right about 9:1, you can build more power across the entire RPM range with higher compression, but, it will require you to run higher octane fuel. For a street daily driver, I would stay under 10:1, with minimal if not zero quench area, and you could still run regular gas. If it knocks, go to higher octane.

Rings just need to fit the pistons, and the bore. There are different materials available, and different styles of rings as well... (gapped, gapless... etc.) each with their own applications. You are gonna need to do some reading. Either that, or just have a chat with whomever you are ordering parts from, and take their suggestion.