Super A pistons

How can I tell if the tractor I have had the flat top pistons or the stepped head ones. I don't have the ones that came out of it. Thanks

I think they all came from the factory with flat top pistons. Many had high compression (Firecrater, or "Stepped Head") pistons put in during rebuild.

OK. So it would not matter which ones I went back with. Just was worried about head spacing with the stepped heads.. Of course the smart thing to do would be to use the stepped heads I know. Just wanted to make sure.

Either should work OK. I have had to do a little work on the combustion chamber of heads that had been planed down a lot, in order to make room for the stepped head pistons, but it was very minor work.

Do you know the history of your heads? Would suck to find out the valves are hitting the pistons after all the work of a rebuild. I believe there's a way to check clearance with clay. I'll defer to an expert.
I also wonder what would be a fair figure to assume, (from anybody?) in horsepower gain, from flat tops to firecraters?
I did my SA in the Spring, new sleeves and pistons, (a ytmag kit), and kept with flat tops. I asked the advice of a friend who is a Chrysler auto mechanic. Here was my tongue-in-cheek question, and his tongue-in-cheek reply...
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P and R Pete: "So what do you think about swapping the flat pistons for domed? I'm thinking it will bring the original 20 horsepower up to what? Fifty to sixty??"

Mitch: "Nah, maybe 22 or 23. In an engine like this, increasing the compression ratio ain't gonna do much more 'n cause you problems. Ya can't just swap out pistons without having the cylinder bores checked for out of roundness. If after you remove the carbon on to of the cylinders where the top ring stops, you see a little groove in the cylinder wall that ain't carbon, then the engine will need bored and oversize pistons installed. The secret to more power is a straight round bore, good rings properly sealed to the bore, cylinder head gasket and valves that can hold the compression in until the cylinder fires.

I would doubt you have much wear in the cylinders. If anything, maybe a little groove on the thrust side. But yeah, we could punch 'er out .030 over, put in the high domes with file fit rings, take between .040 to .060 off the head surface, bigger intake and exhaust valves, a little porting under the valves to blend in the larger size valve into the existing runners, match the intake and exhaust ports perfectly to the gaskets, making sure not to remove any short side radius off the intake ports, put in a 480 lift cam, new intake manifold for the Holley 4 bbl, and of course a header, that should get 'er up to about 30 hp. *wink*"
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LOL!!

You cant as you dont know where the tractor came from as there were 4 available distillate,standard,5000ft and 7000ft what is your bore. I have installed Hi-Domes some with more than others with no problems

There are several types of stepped head pistons. I used a set with real hi-dome to check for valve clearence just put a piece of modeling clay on top of piston and then set the head on top and turned engine over and had plenty of clearence to the valves. I like the RED POWER kits from HOWARD ENTERPRISES.