Thank you sir, very informative. As a cheap bastard who wasn't planning on doing block work, I'm pinching pennies right about now. Do you have any general advice regarding keeping/tossing things like rings & bearings? At this point, I'm leaning towards a set of rings+hone, and just measuring the bearings to see if they're still good.

I would never dream of opening a motor to that level without replacing the rings and bearings. No exceptions.