Dadandson said:
I am not sure about the 1500 pistons but the compression ratios on the 1275 pistons are changed by the top piston cavity, or lack of one. The wrist pin to top of piston I believe are constant. I may be wrong and if so it will be corrected.
LOL, not picking on you, but yes you can buy 1275 piston that 9.7 to 1 over the 8.8 to 1 replacment pistons, same dish volume, the 9.7 to 1 piston just have a bit more compression height.
AE 21251 8.8 to 1 piston
AE 21253 9.7 to 1 piston
As far as using 1380 piston in a 1500 block, I guessing the original poster has now fiquire this out, it won't work, but you can use the 9.0 to 1 piston and then cut the head to get the compression up, the 1500 has very healthy head deack, racer have cut these head .120"+, so a street can get to 10.0 to 1 (which is as high as I recommend for street use) pretty easy. You can use std. TR6 piston in a 1500, this works out to be .040" in the 1500, and of course you could go oversized with the TR6 piston, like .040 (which would be .080 over in a 1500) to get a over bore, these pistons require alot of decking but is do-able, I've built SCCA limited prep 1500 race engines dong this, it requires shorter tubular custom length pushrods and using the 1300 head gasket, but it works, it's old Rick Cline recipe. Not like alot of folks are thinking about it, buit time will change that, there are some formula to build some pretty serious 1500 street engines, that can give the A-series engine a run for their money, I've built 3 of the SCCA LP 1500 race engines, and one of them blew my Huffaker 948 away down the straight. Even though I primarly am a A and B series MG builder, I kinda hope one day a street guys wanting to build a pretty serious 1500 gives me a call, I think it could be a very fast A-series killer
(ok, don't you A-series lover all smack me at the same time
) All jokes aside I see a new breed of 1500 Midget owners, and this new breed is looking to making the 1500 more powerful, and they are wanting some other answer than "just put a 1275 in it", and trust me, a whoop-butt 1500 it is very do-able.