I can go with a 10:1 forged piston on a stock gsr block minus the arp rod bolts and acl bearings or do an ls stroker with ls crank rods and pistons and yield a 9.6:1, my next question is, what's going to yield more hp and be safer? I also am conserned a little with longevity of the engine, so I'd like to keep that in mind as well. I was talking to Derek Dunbar of DDtech cams, who makes awesome cams as well as tuning (highly reccomend you check him out and reccomended the stock gsr with forged pistons and a 16g turbo. My goal is 325-50 range, anything more is just a bonus, I currently have gathered a polished and completely rebuild with supertech everything GSR head, a polished skunk2 intake (I know I know Edelbrock victor is x is ideal but I'm working with what I got), 68mm throttle body. Still have no turbo, manifold ect because I plan to break the motor in na on a chipped ecu until about 500 or so miles when I slap the turbo on and don't know exactly what to do with the block yet. Some people say alot more tq with the ls set up and I'll just spin and not make much top end, others say it doesn't go all the way up the sleeve so my tdc will be off etc. So trying to weigh some pro and cons here and needed an opinion or past experience story, any help is appreciated, thanks.

 

if you're going to take apart the motor and put forged pistons in, might as well put aftermarket rods in it.

 

Going on a budget here.

 

then you need to up your budget sir, just save some more money its just that simple
stock rods with aftermarket pistons dont go together