Hello from Germany, and sorry for my english at first, I hope it is ok to just jump in and join.
This is such an interesting discussion, I needed that information a year ago when I have built my first Buick Straight 8.
It is a ( quite rare I guess) 278 from 1934 which I bought unseen in parts from a guy in Denmark.
We designed new pistons and increased the compression to 7.0:1, got cnc rods made, bigger valves and new valve guides, also built an intake manifold for 4 Stromberg 97's and welded a custom exhaust.
It runs with an electronic ignition where I can change the ignition curve on a computer to get the best result from high octane fuels.
As there was quite a long discussion about pistons and their design I wanted to show our idea of it.
lls995