Many years ago I overhauled a V-4 Saab engine, which was a Ford industrial engine, such as used in forklifts etc. The owner was an artist without much money. Pistons were available only as an assembly with rods at $235 each. This was in 1975 or so. I had the local machine shop knurl the pistons; they just asked "how much." I straightened the bores with a hone, fit the pistons with a feeler gauge and a file, installed new rings, did some other stuff and buttoned it up. More than ten years later, after I was out of the business, another local mechanic called me on the phone and asked "What did you do to Libby's engine?" "OMG, what happened? Did it blow up?" I asked. "No, no," he said. "It's starting to use oil and I wondered if you remembered what you did." I told him and he put valve stem seals in it, lapped the valves and gave it back to her. This was around 100,000 miles after I'd worked on it. These were tough motors.
