How does the motor come back from the machine shop and you don't have the pistons yet? Aren't the cylinders machined to the requirements of the pistons? Do you have 902 or 906 heads? Not familiar with 902. What parts do you have, how fast do you want to run (don't know how fast your Chevelle is), and how much money do you have to spend. What's your car's weight, gear, trans... You want headers? That's a good price to power ratio addition if you can deal with the hassles.

The challenger is for stoplight to stoplight fun. My wife takes her car and I take the Chevelle and we go cruising on the weekends. We throw the kids in the car and have fun. Every once in a while she will take it to the strip when we run the race car. I plan on putting the drag radials on the challenger and make them work. The chevelle runs mid 12s at 109mph. I was trying to figure out which KB Hyper piston to put in the 440 for the challenger.

do you have a cranking cr/psi with that cam?
are the chambers polished on the heads?

The motor has never been together. Right now the car has a 318 in it. The heads are stock. I have not done any work to them.

Mike I just viewed some of your 8-71 pics. I had to throw my E-85 67 pic in here. No flames fellas

looks good.

For MAX TQ you want a small duration cam. I use a Crower cam #32243 that can be used with STOCK rockers/pushrods and STOCK converter and 323/355 gears. My 71 Charger R/T runs well inmto the 12s with this cam, thermoquad, holley street dominator intake, TTI Headers and 355 rear and stock 11.75 converter and drag radials. The car has unreal TQ that moves my 4000lb + car like you will not believe and the idle and drivability of my car is like stock. A combo like this in a lighter car like a Challenger should run low to mid 12s easily.

i have to recheck theKB-146 and 236 but here is a KB to look at.
http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=UEM%2DKB278030%2D8&autoview=sku
1.996 CH,.200quench pad that will help with the pump gas.with these you could polish some out of the chamber also or just smooth it.
edit: part 2 of above.

Mike, I am a bow tie guy. I am struggling to undestand the difference between the 1.996 amd the 2.057 Compression height as it pertains to Mopars. The math I did tels me that a 1.996 piston would leave the pistom too far in the hole. (?)

THX
Milan

that KB is a quench piston.check the link!i was waiting to get to this point and say that you need to measure the deck height when the engine is appart to be sure what you have then deck as needed or buy the piston that works.my 2.050CH piston was .060 in the hole.so you need to measure. there is a KB that is 2.065CH on the summit page.
Part Number: UEM-KB278030-8
Bore (in): 4.350 in.
Bore (mm): 110.490mm
Piston Style: Step head, with a trough
Piston Material: Hypereutectic aluminum
Compression Distance (in): 1.992 in.
Dome Height (in): 0.200 in.
Piston Head Volume (cc): -5.00cc
Wrist Pin Style: Press-fit or floating
Pin Diameter (in): 1.094 in.
Piston Ring Thickness: 5/64 in. x 5/64 in. x 3/16 in.
Quantity: Sold as a set of 8.
Notes: 0.200 inch quench dome height. Piston gram weight 775g, pin gram weight 190g.

Pistons, Hypereutectic, Step, 4.350 in. Bore, 5/64 in., 5/64 in., 3/16 in. Ring, Big Block Mopar, Set of 8
here is some stroke info.go to 440/440 kit 1/2 way down.
http://www.440source.com/strokerkits.htm
depending on the cc's of the head and if your block has never been decked.
here is the other piston.
Part Number: UEM-KB237030-8
Bore (in): 4.350 in.
Bore (mm): 110.490mm
Piston Style: Flat top, with two valve reliefs
Piston Material: Hypereutectic aluminum
Compression Distance (in): 2.067 in.
Piston Head Volume (cc): +5.00cc
Wrist Pin Style: Press-fit or floating
Pin Diameter (in): 1.094 in.
Piston Ring Thickness: 5/64 in. x 5/64 in. x 3/16 in.
Quantity: Sold as a set of 8.
Notes: Piston gram weight 770g, pin gram weight 190g.

Pistons, Hypereutectic, Flat, 4.350 in. Bore, 5/64 in., 5/64 in., 3/16 in. Ring, Big Block Mopar, Set of 8
here s the KB site link for info.
http://kb-silvolite.com/performance.php?action=details&P_id=27

It looks like the KB278 is the only one that will give me a good quench area clearance of 0.037. I will need to have machine work for the others. I was hoping to get 9.5:1 or 10:1 CR. It looks like that wont happen as the CR given for the 278 is 8.8:1....

Piston Style-KB to consider-quench dome HT-C.R. at 90cc-Option-Compr. height-Quench dome above deck-installed C.H.-quench clearance
step head-----KB2360600------.075-------9.9-----------Yes---------2.057---------0.047------------0.028-----------0.097
trough--------KB146060------0.075-------9.9-----------Yes---------2.057---------0.047------------0.028-0.----------097
big stephead--KB278060------0.200-------8.8-----------Yes---------1.992---------0.107-------------0.093-----------0.037
flattop--------KB237060------0-----------9.7------------no---------2.067--------------0.018--------0.018---- ------0.162
cancelled----- kb184-- -----0.140---------8.9 ----------no--------- 1.992----------- 0.047 ----------0.093 -----------0.084

do you know the cc of your heads?88cc's
milling the head is fairly cheap.
you should have a lot of P/T clearance.

I CC-ed the heads and they are at 89cc-90cc across the board

well mopart did a test with head gaskets and the first point in cr gained 15HP[8/1cr to 9/1]the weather can change that so what is it worth to you? upgrade the cam later after you get the P/V measured with this cam.

The step in each cylinder was at or very close to 1.05".

Looks like my best bet will be the KB278 then. I guess its more inportant to have as efficient of a cylinder (good quench) than a higher CR and poor quench.

I'm just not used to pistons being so far in the hole and I am struggling with that. I guess its from my time on the BowTie side of the fence.

maybe there isanother piston and you have not found it yet. used or new.