David Biele Dave before your machinist goes offand gets bore crazy, we need a couple of things to look at, Pictures and depth of the scratches would be nice. You have a couple of options here,
#1 If only 1 cylinder is bad, cut it .015" over to remove the damage to the walls an get 1 custom piston with the same weight as the rest. If other cylinders are damaged, do the same. This way you will have 4 rebuilds before even looking at block replacement or a sleeve job. The motor has custom pistons to start. .015, .030, .045, .060" are the 4 bore cuts done with a good machinist.
#2 If the hole is that bad, replace the sleeve and piston only. Bore out old sleeve install new one. New piston and rings.
#3 How does the rest of the motor main and rod bearings look?? perfect, poor shape, or toast?? Alot of FE motors have
oil leaks. How low was the
oil level to damage the bearings??? If you are doing alot of hard or canyon running, you are going to have to think about either a drysump system or a extra safety protector. A 3 quart accusump to help maintain
oil pressure on high "g" turns. I hope the motor is running a larger oil pan that the normal 5-6 quart one.
Get a COMPLETE break down before you start to repair the motor. Between all new pistons, bearings, remachining the crank, (undercutting) New bolts for rods it might be cheaper to get a new stroker kit complete from Barry R. and have it balanced. Last time I checked it is about $2,500.00 plus shipping.
It's your car and money but would like to see you get the BEST repair for the money. You also need to look into an accusump as both a preoiler for starting the motor and protector for fun driving. You should not have lost this motor in 2,500 miles even with hard driving. Also make sure you are running an HVHP oil pump and have an #80 spring added to the pump. Doug plumber sell them here. If you are running 60 psi in your car, it is not enough. Also check and see if oil restictors are in the heads? You want a set of .080" restrictors. Holley jets work great with a little grinding work to get them into the oil channels of the head bellow the rocker stud ot bolt hole. This will give ENOUGH oil to the rockers and help cool the valve springs under fun driving. IMO and testing have found that .060" are not enough to safely handle a motor driven hard . Normal driving, Yes.
Waiting for a report on which way to go?? See if you can get a couple of pictures too. The other thing is if you are not 100% happy with machinist 1 get your stuff and find another one. Cali has some of the best. It just might be a drive to get there. In the long run it may also be worth it. Rick L.