[swamp rat]

I was thinking you may have wiped the oil off the valve spring cap when you were looking at it, my mistake for assuming. If it was like that then you definantly were not pumping oil from the lifter thru the push rod and out the rocker, now the question would be why? bad lifter? or a blockage in the supply to the lifter? blockage in the push rod? fualty rocker? lots of questions to answer.

If you replace one piston your going to have to replace the rings, in order to get the rings to break in and properly and seat you need to hone the cylinder, if you buy a ball hone and hone the one cylinder you run the risk of getting that grit all over the place inside the block, not a good practice. If you don't get all the grit cleaned out then the oil will flush the grit into the oil pan where it can and will get pulled thru your oil pump (good bye oil pressure)before it gets filtered, that is assuming you have a quality filter because there is one brand out there i wouldn't use for a paper weight, its name starts with an f, if the filter is fualty then all that grit is sent thru the engine siginificantly wearing all the bearings, journals ect... after a block is machined and honed its cleaned to remove all the grit.

Now back to the lifter? How are you going to find out if its getting oil? by proper dissasembly and inspection of the block if its not getting oil then spending the money for a piston and bearing, rings new lifter and putting it back together is wasted time and money as its just gonna happen allover again.

Also now your going to have one cylinder with higher compression than the rest if its done correctly. Lets not forget you will need to mic the cylindar/piston to figure out if the block has been bored over or if its stock before you order the thing... do you know what piston is in it now? is it stock or after market, can you match it?? speaking of, can you obtain a single rocker, push rod and lifter, rod bearing? all questions you need to ask.

>>>i'm trying to be practical here and decide to rebuild or get a new, reman(or even used) engine.<<<

This is one of your origional questions, Its up you what you do, what your thinking is a low buck compromise barnyard approach to the fix with a 50/50 or worse chance that it will not last, if ya do that then its your ball game. I'm not going to suggest anything more than if ya do one piston you should do them all and correctly by proper machining and cleaning (and chasing all the oil galleys to check for blockages ect. even if you can obtain one new piston just like the rest and all the rest of the parts i would still reccomend a full tear down and rebuild................Or, buy a Long Block..