nm

[cuinrearview]

Well, it looked to me like old carbon buildup with new scratch lines. Seemed like maybe a case of a good used piston + saw that had previously burned down and wasn’t properly prepped. Either way it looks like I led to this getting blown out of proportion

With used junk, anything is possible. I just have never went into a new to me saw assuming something like that. If I got a saw under circumstances that I felt the need to pop the muffler, I'd be ecstatic to find a piston that looks like that. But I have a different bar for what is "junk" than most.