Work holding in a lathe.

[Frank S]

I did something similar many years ago for a guy who was rebuilding his 4 cylinder Ford ranger engine. He had bought new .030 over pistons and connecting rod assemblies without the rings. He had ordered rings from another source but when they arrived the top compression rings were .020" too tall and too thick to fit the groves. Fortunately for me his pistons had machined flats on the bottom of the relieved skirts. All I had to do was cut the bearing end off of 1 of his old connecting rods install it in the new pistons with shims to fill the space between the rod and the piston at the gudgeon pin chuck the connecting rod stub in the 4 jaw with the flats of the piston skirt against 2 of the jaws held the piston against the chuck with a blunt nosed live center then widen and deepen the top ring groves. It wasn't a racing engine so I did no further mods to the pistons