Stevo, to answer your question, this was the motor that was in a parts car that we bought. It only had about 140k miles on it. It started smoking badly one day and failed emission testing. The PO had compression testing done, which was terrible, so he decided to sell the car, and we bought it. For a car with a 'shot' motor, it had a surprising amount of power. Given the low mileage, we thought it might be worth rebuilding and putting in to Buttercup.
That's good news! That is the spot where the readings were exactly where we wanted them to be. I guess there's a reason for that.

psfred, we do have a micrometer accurate to 4 decimal places, and are measuring it the way it is described in the manual. We both took measurements (several times!) and the readings are consistant. So I think we're measuring right, we just need to know the right SPOT to take the measurements.

So far we have discovered:
-the pistons all measure exactly what they should (90.85mm).
-the crankshaft looks in great shape
-the bearings look brand new
-cylinder 5 has some scoring
-cylinder 1 has crosshatch marks (the rest look like factory)
As far as the measurement of the cylinders, that brings me to another question. We measured in the middle, top and bottom. All the readings are within limits (between 90.92 and 90.94mm) EXCEPT for a 1/4 inch ridge at the top, immediately below where the carbon buildup starts. In that ridge the readings are 91.1. If you go one quarter inch below the carbon buildup, the readings are acceptable. All the cylinders are the same. What do you make of that? Is it significant? The manual says to read 'one inch down from the top'... do they mean EXACTLY one inch down? I'm not sure if one inch is in the ridge or not, I haven't measured it's exact distance from the top.

Thanks again!

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Natalie