How bad did I #$&% my piston up?

Woah, woah, woah! You need to step back and VERY CAREFULLY read the web page that was posted.

You are confusing piston to cylinder wall clearance with top ring end gap.

Piston to cylinder wall clearance should be around .0015" to .002" for a normally aspirated street engine.

As far as end gap goes, the top ring needs to have .0065" (that's six and a half thousandths) of end gap PER INCH of cylinder bore. That's 4.030 x .0065 which equals about .026" (twenty-six thousandths).

This is why I admit to being a goon with this stuff and save myself from $3,000 of heart ache. Going back to that page for another read. Thank you, sometimes I just need to be smacked in the head like that.