The importance of a torque plate

Everyone here building an engine should have a dial bore gauge to check not only the cylinders...but the mains n rods as well. You can get them cheap.
All the main caps on a 360 I had done ...i had to stake to fit right & measure right cap vs saddle. I was pissed but determined. It worked out great. I even re honed the cylinders to the finish I wanted. That motor was a beast and smooth as silk. Every thing was as close to perf as I could get it 'after the initial build and machine work' Wish I knew why no.5 piston evaporated....suspected it was the cylinder wall may have had porosity 'water jacket side' and cracked. Every other piston was fine...It was a 78 block @.040 pumping near 200 psi a hole with a 4" arm..so it would be unheard of. That motor was initially torqued plate honed and ended up minutely scuffing 3 cylinders. I re honed it with a dingle ball.