[Lynn]

Asking what you would do.

I bought an Opel GT 1.1 as a basket case. Car has been apart since 1974. Other than the battery tray and a small rust through under the battery tray (already repaired and painted), it is rust free, and definitely worth saving. I even made a new friend in Germany who works for Opel, and he sent me a copy of what we would refer to here as the "build sheet" confirming that I have the original engine for the car. Also got another spare engine with the car.

The engine rebuild was interrupted by my recent cancer surgery but is getting back on track.

I have dealt with this machine shop for three generations. They have always done great work for me.

I had the block decked, the head shaved, valve seats cut for new valves, new pistons installed on the rods, crank polished (still std. all around) and the rotating assy balanced. Going to see if I can get 50 mph out of this little car. Only weighs 1800 pounds complete (until I get my fat arse in there).

Anyway, started putting the engine together last week. Saw that the rods and pistons were installed backwards. Took them back to the machine shop. Owner was very apologetic and said most late model stuff has any id marks on pistons and rods pointing the same direction. On these, the arrow on the piston points forward, the notch in the rod cap points to the rear of the engine. No big deal. He agreed to swap them for me.

Picked them up and started to put it together last night. Noticed that all the pistons had some scratches. They had no scratches last week. Was able to clean them up with scotch pads for the most part. However, one of the skirts has a crack in it. It is on the side, so not in a stressed area. I also checked and it fits fine in the hole. Did not affect any clearance issue. I could probably put install this and it would run fine for 100k miles. But, if it were you, would you insist the machine shop spring for another set of pistons? They are not expensive ($200 a set with rings.... really good German quality).

What would you do? Will probably look for a new machine shop either way for future projects.

Just for fun, included a few pics of the car as found, the Data sheet from the Opel factory, along with a pic of the cracked piston.