[lust4speed]

OK, I'm confused. The photo in post #25 shows retainer to seal interference, but you say that was corrected back in 2012?

I'm working on a '69 RAIII engine right now where a lifter link bar rivet came out and the lifter turned sideways and plowed a nice furrow into the roller cam before being pulverized into pieces. I'm seeing less carnage on the RA engine than in these pics. For whatever reason his oil filter did a much better job of catching debris. His pistons were in good shape and we had the machine shop do a very light hone to get the walls cleaned up. My machinist is usually good but this time I'm thinking he could have been a heart surgeon - bores came back perfect and were less than .001" larger. You do need some exact measurements of current bore size vs. piston skirt size to see if there was a problem.

I think the crank journal ridges won't polish out and it will need to go another ten -- and it sure looks like there is a casting flaw present where the crank shouldn't have been put back in service the last time. I agree with not seeing any detonation signs and don't really see signs that the line bore was off. I'd expect to see some block upper caps worn and some bottom caps worn, but the wear looks fairly distributed. Might again point towards a crank that isn't running true in the bore either because of being bent or ground wrong.

You want better rods, I think the crank is junk, and the pistons don't look super but could be reused -- I'd go with a stroker kit and simply hone cylinder bores to the next .005" since you should be going with a custom dish size anyway. A good machinist can also measure and give you an exact compression height for the piston pin for the order.