You want to lower the needle so raise the clip up on a groove. how far down was it. Should have been in second from the top to start.

the say the piston should be a light brown color. When I sezied mine it had five minutes burn so it was like new. i would think a serious build up of carbon around the rings might seize it. But that is just a guess.

If your head gasket is leaking it might give you a problem but if it fires maybe not. When you had the head off did you turn the engine over to watch the piston move? When I tore mine down I could see the piston move past the intake port.

In my case the C clip was installed wrong and got sucked into the cylinder and jamed a ring. now that seized the engine for sure. I had to knock i loose with a hammer to get that darned clip out. then of course I broke two rings so had to order more and wait for them to show up. When I finally got it put back together and it started, i thought I was really something.

anyway you don't have any missing pieces do you. lol

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