Piston Selection

What do you think of Federal Mogul's hypereutectic pistons? It's really getting time to rebuild my engine now, oil consumption is at a quart every 1000 miles. I was looking on summit and they had a complete overhaul kit for $210. It seems like a steal, but will the pistons be safe at just under 9.5:1 with a 5200ish rpm redline and under vortech heads?

.040 or .060? I don't have any scores in the bores, that I know of, so the only reason to bore would be because the cylinders are tapered. On a high milage engine, what is the taper usually at and would a .040 bore remove it if it's at .030. How well do 3970010 1-ton truck blocks tollerate a .060 overbore?

Bringing things into spec. Last time I had my pan off, I checked end play on the connecting rods. On some of the forward connecting rods, the end play was greater than the maximum spec. Is there any way to return it to spec? Also, what if the lifter bores are out of spec? Is there any cost effective way to bring those back?

Sounds like I should start looking for a virgin block, as mine has already had one major overhaul. Crank has been turned .010 under already, but they are safe to .030 from what I've heard. I haven't checked the bores yet, who knows, they may be .020 over, but that is very unlikely.

For the actual rebuild, I think my grandpa wants me to do it like an airplane engine. Do thinks like cc the combustion chambers and balance all of the reciprocating components. Where are the best places to remove metal from cc's, pistons, and connecting rods in order to balance them to make the engine run extra smoothly?

Should I be concerned about the lifter bores getting too large?

Apparently somebody else agreed with Smokey and that is why 400's have steam holes.

Well that is what a forum is for, because we all don't know everything.

It's going to be hard finding a machine shop in Watsonville (little Mexico).