Don't have any pics as I don't have a camera. There's a line that runs up and down with the piston. It's a black line and I CAN feel it when I run my finger over it. Otherwise the cylinder walls look fine. That particular cylinder (minus the strange mark) doesn't look any different from any of the others. Could this be a sign of a problem?

I saw a line on an EA-82 I took apart years ago, turns out one of the oil control rings flopped over, probably on assembly and cut a groove, it had over 215K on it and burned less oil than the engine I had in my DD.

 

 

Probably from the piston or from a contaminate, either way you should probably re-bore the cylinder to get rid of it, or find a "new" EA case.

I found the same thing in one cyl of a FORD FE motor I rebuilt. I could feel the groove, but barely. I talked to a pro engine builder and his advice was to use emery cloth on it. Not to sand it smooth, but sand it down enough so nothing protruded above the surrounding cyl wall. The groove, apparently, would only cause the engine to possibly burn a little oil. I took his advice and the engine never did burn any oil or smoke.

 

It always bothered me, but I don't think it's a deal killer in engine building to have a groove in a cyl wall.

 

EA82 short blocks are plentiful, maybe it'd be best to replace it. But, I'd go with it if I couldn't find a replacement really easily.

Yeah these engines are becoming quite difficult to come by. I'll try to use some emory cloth on it and just not worry about it. I leaked so much oil it was hard to tell what it was burning and what it was leaking. Didn't smoke so I'm guessing it should be alright, especially after rubbing it down a tad.