pachanga

I am about to have my Raylar kit installed on my Sunsation 288. I have a set of CMI Big tube headders and an ECM with the whipple flash. The engine is a 2005 and has 114 hours on it.

Had my mechanic check with mercury and my 496 does have a forged crank. I want a grenade proof engine so I am considering upgrading the bottem end(also because the whipple flash raises the rev limiter to 5500RPMs?). I've heard complaints about the 496 pistons. So I thought I might put a better set of pistons in and balance the rotating assembly.

If I up the compression a little bit would it yield much performance improvement with the 525 Raylar components? I want to be able to run 93 octane gas. Piston recomendations and are the rods good to go(forgot to ask about them would they be forged as well?)? I was told with the whipple flash and the headders I should see around 575HP.

OR! Should I just leave the bottem end alone and go with what I have? The engine is coming out for the install so it does help on the labor costs of doing the bottem end.

I will be calling soon Ray as I need at the least a set of gaskets. Thought it might be an interesting and imformational thread!

Thanks for opinions in advance!