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And while you're at it, throw some c4 in the oil pan and make it a good explosion. Ok, so that may be a little bit dramatic, but you have the engine apart, build it right. You can't afford to do it right the first time, but you can afford to do it twice right? With taper in the bore, the rings are constantly expanding and contracting as they go up and down the bores. IF there's a groove at the top, you could possibly break rings when the pistons come to TDC. Do yourself a favor and do it right the first time. Piston slap is likely the least of the problems as you have a tall piston, but ring seal will be compromised and on top of that, if you get some new pistons, then you can get the compression up where it belongs and make some real power. Just a suggestion, but it's what I would do.




Knurling is good to take up the extra clearence in a bore for wear but you are right that if it has much cyl taper that has to be fixed. I was under the impression that it just had to much piston to wall clearence from cyl or piston wear but not alot of taper.
Knurling is good to close up the piston to cyl wall room and works very good if done right. In fact it is very good for holding small amounts of oil in the knurls and helps keep the piston and cyl wall wear down with the oil in the knurls that keeps extra oil between the cyl wall and pistons. It is not a half a$$ job as it has been done for many years and holds up for a very long time. My old 383 still has the knurled pistons in it after 10 years on the road and the knurls still look good.

Many people are on a tight budget as I was and just cant afford knew pistons and all. I honed my cylinders alot to get it as close to round and as little taper as I could get. Then I knurled the pistons and file fit them for .0015 to .002 piston to wall clearence. It saved me alot of money on a budget build. I am not trying to be smart as you are correct in boring and replacing pistons to be the best way to repair it but done right knurling is very effective and is a good repair that will hold up for many years and miles. Ron