Literally hundreds of millions of cars have been built with cast pistons. I am sure that tens of thousands have gone down the strip in less than 13 seconds. I have seen some pretty beat up cast pistons that have been dinged by screws, nuts, valves, etc. They generally do NOT disintegrate from this kind of abuse.

Put them in a high rpm motor or run a lot of NOS past them, especially with lean A/F ratios, and they'll come apart. But I have in my collection some very high dollar forged pistons, 2618 alloy, that are pretty melted too.

Face it, for the kind of use this 394 Olds is going to see, almost any piston will get the job done.

Now to the real question, has the OP followed my lead on Doc Frohmader's 394 olds buildup yet? Doc says he took 303 grams out of EACH rod/piston combo. That's 2/3 of a pound out of EACH hole. That is worth considering for any engine.

R.