This quest is taking me in new and different directions than I have ever gone before. The consensus seems to be that what I want to do regarding the piston/cylinder fit with no rings is indeed possible, but I am going to have to learn lapping skills that I currently do not have. So---I have today ordered a 15/16" internal barrel lap (which will easily expand to 0.945" or 24 mm) and a tube of 8 micron to 12 micron "light" diamond lapping compound. I looked at external manual hones, but as they cost upwards of $400 I will probably be making my own external lap, (pending some information from Ramon on HMEM) from a piece of brass with a hole bored thru it and a pinch bolt. Wiser heads than mine are suggesting that I use leaded steel for the liner, and as I have a piece of 12L14 left over from my last engine I will probably use it for the liner with cast iron for the piston. My course of "step by step" actions will be to first make the cast iron piston, turning the outer diameter of the piston to about .001" to .002" oversize from my desired 24 mm (0.945"). I will then set the piston aside. I next machine the outside diameter of the piece of material for the liner to ensure it's roundness over the full length, including an inch or more to be held in the chuck jaws. Next I will bore the liner and chucking stub to about .0015" to .0001 undersize and then turn the outer diameter to finished size, turn the "lip" at the top of the liner to finished size, and still leave the liner attached to the "chucking stub" held in the lathe. Then over to the rotary table to cut the ports and sparkplug hole in the sides with the mill. Then back over to the lathe to lap the inside bore to exact size, using a lap mounted in the lathe and the cylinder liner in my hand (I try for a tighter fit at the top of the liner than at the bottom--this is sort of a "by feel" thing.). Now, assuming the cylinder liner is exactly finished to "On size", I put the chucking stub end of it back into the lathe. No farther machining operations will be carried out on the liner, except to part it off from the chucking stub after the piston is fitted. I then use the external lapping tool on the piston by hand, and bring the piston down to a point where it will just begin entering the bottom end of the cylinder liner. At this point I attach a T handle to the piston, using a temporary brass "wrist pin" and using a solution of very little fine diamond paste with a lot of kerosene, lathe not running, I wring the piston in and out of the cylinder by hand, untill I feel it enter freely up as far as the exhaust ports ,then with increasingly more friction as it reaches top dead center in the cylinder. This can be adjusted by just how much lapping I do of the piston into the cylinder. When I am happy with the fit, I then part off the liner from it's chucking stub.---Have I got the sequence right???---Brian