yamadan

I have a gp760 waverunner that had the front piston go. A portion of the ring snapped and chewed up the top of the piston (actually took a small chunk down to the top ring) and pitted the head some. The cylinder surprisingly doesn't look all too bad, just has some light scoring. I may be able to clean it up with a hone. The rear cylinder pistion and cylinder were perfect (150 psi and no wear on the cylinder or piston). It will be a easy top end rebuild, but I was looking for tips to assure the bottom end is good. I have the jug off and both pistons, and the crank rolls very smooth, I don't see any signs of heat build up.... what else should I look for on the bottom end??

Do you check for play in the connection rod bearing? I'm a little fuzzy here since they roll on needle bearings. They slide side-to-side on the bearing journal, and no noticable movement up and down, but there is a slight amount of tilt (hope that's the right term), but I'd imagine there would be some since they are riding on needle bearing?