I just bolted up the rods in this 123 ci engine and noticed that the flat side of the dome tops of these pistons arent exactly parallel to the edge of the block, all of them vary to some degree in the amount of cock compared to the edge of the block, but on #1, its really off. It wouldn't bother me that much except that #1 piston was the one that came apart and caused the rebuild to begin with. He sent the rods out and the old bushings were left in as they wern't that bad. All the big ends were ground and rebored, basicaly because we needed to see if there was any damage to the one rod. Before he sent them to the shop, I checked them for twist on a granite surface plate with a .0005 indicator and didn't detect any twist or abnormalities.I would think, that because of the large amount that this one pistons dome runs crooked to the edge of the block, if the rod was twisted that bad, it should have rocked on the surface plate or at least shown up on the indicator It's about 1/4" off, at least an 1/8" farther off or more crooked than the other domes, it sticks out like a sore thumb. Side play is still close to wear limits and the other rods, so I know the shop didnt bore the rod heavily to straighten it out and then grind the sides. Now I am wondering whether the casting on these red power pistons just vary in this manner (crooked), or was the pin hole in the piston bored crooked or is there a problem that still exists somewhere on #1 that caused the original piston to fail to begin with. Anyone ever noticed the domes on the RP pistons not being uniformly straight to the edge of the block. Any ideas? I sure would like to get this thing out of my shop before too long. Thank You and sorry for the long post, scott#2
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