I'm running 9.5:1 SRP by JE pistons with Eagle "H" rods.
If you plan to turbo right away, I'd go with 9:1 compression; I went with 9.5:1 because I don't have the money to put the turbo on right away and I wanted the car to run well without the forced induction. I won't be able to boost as high, but I wanted to be able to drive my car.

As for balancing, you take your block, pistons, rods, crank, flywheel, clutch, and pulley to a machine shop and tell them you want to get your bottom end balanced. You actually may want to call them first to find out how much and to see what all parts they need. I think it only cost around $75 - $100 for me.. I don't remember.

The benefits of a balanced bottom end are that it runs much smoother and it's MUCH more stable at high RPMs. You can rev it high and it will very stable. It is a preventative mod as most are when doing serious work to a motor.

Because you're turboing, I highly recommend a good set of rods!!! That's where your weakenesses will occur so you need to have those beefed up as much as possible. I looked at Crower, but that's overkill and not worth the money for our motors and HP possibilities. I got my Eagle rods from ImportParts.com (before I had my dealership) off of www.groupbuycenter.com for around $400 shipped.

Hope it helps.

 

what is the actual process though?

 

B-series rods are quite strong. It's the rings that you should worry about.

 

:dunno:

Take all the parts to a machine shop
leave
come back a couple days later
pay the man
take your parts home.

Those are the steps I took.