I remember back when I had a Honda 88' civic, due to a dealer mess-up, I had to have a piston replaced....the dealer did it for free. The actually boared out a single cylindar, and replaced one pistion. I was horified that one was going to be different....the car had 75,000 miles at the time, got a new cam, etc. That motor ran smooth and strong for a long time...had 276,000 miles when I sold it. Moral of the story was I guess....if you are good at what you are doing, you can do almost anything with an engine, and when you reassemble it, it should still have a long service life.