I picked up this 95 for 500 bucks through my dad's friend. It had a fairly decent tick. After replacing rod bearings, it still had a tick. Pulled the valve covers, couldn't find anything. I started pulling one spark plug at a time to determine the problem cylinder, and it was number 6. On this site, I found out that sometimes a valve will burn out because of the exhaust setup. So, I pulled the heads...valves were fine... Then I came across 'piston slap.' I never heard the term before, so I researched it. Went out to the truck, and sure enough, I could rock number 6 piston back and forth with my fingers. At this point, I figured I would have to rebuild the engine. I didn't get any pics of the the teardown, but I am taking them of the rebuild. I will post as I go.

After pulling the pistons, I found 3 of them scored to hell. The cylinder walls were OK. Number 6 was the worst. The oil scraper ring was actually fused to the piston. Not sure if was overheated once or ran out of oil. The bearings were fine when I pulled them, so I'm assuming it might have been overheated.

This is the block when I got it back the first time. I planned on painting it and decided I wasn't happy with the rust, so I decided to have it acid washed. I ordered new standard pistons and rings since the shop I got it hot tanked at said the cylinders were OK.

Here's the engine bay after pulling the engine. What a mess. These were taken before I pressure washed it with Simple Green. I managed to kink the tube on the power steering reservoir so I'll have to replace it.

After taking the block to yet another shop, I get a call telling me my cylinders are tapered and are out of spec. tolerances. Not wanting to half-ass it, I go ahead and have it bored .75 mm over and order another set of pistons and rings. This is what the block looked like when I got it back! Looks like new!

You're getting to discover first-hand why these things blow head gaskets--the exhaust cooks that one corner, which is why it looks so bad. Eventually that would lead to the failure of the gasket. I'm kind of surprised you didn't need to go up one size on the pistons, but if the shop says it's good. If you could swing it, this would be a great time to add some headers, to move all that heat away from the heads--unfortunately, they cost more than your original vehicle purchase price (yikes!). Best of luck on the rebuild!

EDIT: Sure, go ahead and change the story while I'm typing (LOL)--so your pistons DO need resized after all. That's more like it. I would be wary of that first shop--that was a major miss that would've caused you problems on the finished product. Block looks great!

I had the heads shaved, the valves redone, and the heads pressure tested. Unfortunately, dingbat put the wrong cams on the wrong heads when I got them back, so I had to swap them. I changed regular shops.

I actually had to have the block bored "30" over. I ordered new pistons as well.

The oil pan had some pitting. I took it to my NEW preferred shop where he bead blasted it, checked it for holes and then painted it with primer. He also straightened out the edge I bent trying to get it off. Word of advice: The one minute epoxy by Permatex WORKS REALLY GOOD. I used it the first time I pulled the pan and it required an act of God to get it off the second time.

The new pistons!!!

Glad to see you're changing shops--I wouldn't trust those first guys after those major screw-ups.

My futile attempt at port polishing....

Installing the bearings. The bearings come in two different "sets." Four of them have oil holes. These go on the block. The other four are just smooth. These go on the main bearing cap carriage. USE A LOT OF ASSEMBLY LUBE. The phrase "less is more" does not apply here. It will prevent any damage during the break in.

I almost forgot these! I had the crank set and the bearing carriage on when I realized I forgot them! These are the thrust bearings. They keep the crank from sliding front to back. For the ones on the bearing carriage, apply some assembly lube to the back of them before setting them on the carriage. This will keep them from falling off when you set the carriage on.