alright might be a newb question for someone that's been here since 97' but did search on google and here and honda swap and everywhere i could think of and maybe one of you guys can help me figure this out a little better.
i understand that lower compression with boost is better...but i also saw people throwing 12.5 compression pistons with LS rods into turbo'd cars...anyone know the advantage/disadvantage to this??

basically i've got a 95 GSR turbo...and i'm looking for better pistons...a friend of mine gave me a set of 12.5 compression with ls rods...need to know if its going to help or hurt.

 

High compression and pump gas and high boost = detonation, kind of a trade off, more HP to be gained per PSI of boost with lower compression and less chance of detonation when using pump gas, many things are a factor, size of turbo, exhaust manifold, type of gas used, blow off valve and so on, the point is to prevent detonation and the best way to do that is with lower compression, especially when using smaller turbos. 94

 

low compression will be slugish when not boosting, but will require less work to boost. another thing to consider when going high comp. is a tune. your tune must be dead on and also your motor needs to be completley built with good parts

 

you're probably going to like the feel of a street motor between 10 and 11:1 better even though you can shove more boost in a lower compression engine. tuning and turbos have gotten so good the past few years that you'll be able to make more power than you can realistically handle pretty easily. people boost stock GSR's and stock ITR's all the time. read up in the forced induction forum and you can learn quite a bit

what turbo do you have on your gsr? is it intercooled, how is it tuned and what whp does it make with what pressure?

lastly, if you haven't broken a piston why are you thinking of changing them?