[patkeefe]

The bores themselves were OK. Where the retaining clips go into the bores, the bores were a bit smaller, such that the piston pins don't want to slide into the bores. I think the dynamic is that these two areas probably saw a lot of stress fron the pins banging on the clips, and pushed them up a bit. Or, someone tried to drive the pins out with the clips still in.

Anyway, I ended up cleaning the high spots with a jewelers file, and trying not to nick up the actual pin bearing surfaces. I manually cleaned the bores with some 400 grit wet paper in the parts washer. They're pretty nice now, but don't have that dull grey bore surface any longer. What made the bore surface that shiny grey, like on new pistons? Some sort of treatment? BTW, we are talking about hours of work here, and I have only finished three pistons. If my spare time were money, I would have bought Nickies and JE pistons.

Pat