3.910 + a few lines

Our business was the warranty depot for Western Automotive Rebuilders outta Winnipeg.
They also supplied engines for Sears, who chose us to replace the engines for them, insteada their own shops, cuz we were quick.
Talking to the owners dropping off their vehicles, I twigged on the fact a lotta these folks had done, or paid to have a re-ring, bearing shell job that didn't seem to work .
When the light bulb came on, I started collecting the 271 h/p fords, Z-28, or small journal chev, no bloody 340s however.
The new motors came without tin, -oil pans, intakes, valve covers, all that stuff had to be cleaned and transfered.
I started taking these "re-rung" home builds apart, finding broken rings, rings stuck solid in the grooves, the grooves not cleaned to their required depth, so the rings never had the space to compress into the groove, they just got pounded into the hole, rings dragging all the way, wiping out cyl walls.
Folks lined up the ring grooves all pretty, on the thrust wall, - oil rings with scrapers on one side of oil ring spacer.
Oil rings too long, butting ends on install, never mind hot.
I sincerely believe and have witnessed what a re-ring done without the slightest idea of what they were doing, and when the job was unsuccessful, well OVER FENDER OVERHAULS DONT WORK .

I knew after the first coupla mentored overhauls exactly all the things I did wrong my first times after - "I read a book".

I ended up with quite a few choice engines free after a "failed overhaul". They had all new stuff inside, just needed to be assembled properly.

I am in no way saying these daily driver overhauls are going to give racecar performance. These are daily driver cars, with regular people who own cars that required valve-grinds at 60 - 80k miles, and re-ringing at 100 - 120ish k.
This job was done millions of times across the nation, and the operation is covered in the Factory Service Manual.

Are these engines equal to a machine shop rebuilt engine, - I certainly hope not ! !

Max horsepower - big bucks, - or daily driver getting groceries, min$.

On a side note, it wasn't uncommon to get 250k miles outta a slant6 taxi, re-rung 3 times with bearing shells, and 20/50 oil .

Note for installing rings - after checking adequate ring gap on ALL rings, install the ring with the gaps at the pin -, 180 degrees apart.
(The second rings gap at one end of the wrist pin, the top rings gap at the opposite end of the wrist pin).
This puts ring gaps away from a thrust wall/surface, avoiding potential damage.
Oil ring scraper ends about 1 inch either side of the expander end, again favoring pin (low thrust)area.
Cheers.