To replace a rod, you have to remove the head and push the rod/piston assembly out of the block. Before you do that though, you have to remove any wear "ridge" that may have formed in the cylinder at the height where the upper piston ring travels. Failure to do so can break rings (possibly piston), since the rings will "catch" on the ridge. IF one gets THAT involved, it's almost a shame not to install new rings. IF you do it on one cylinder, it pretty much makes sense to do it on both.... What I would do-? IF the rod bolts didn't thread back on smoothly, I'd probably replace them. THOROUGHLY examine the rod & crank bearing surfaces for ANY gouging or metal DEPOSIT (on the crank). IF every thing looks OK, I'd button it back up and use it. Like I mentioned earlier, I'd start off slow and work your way "up" on the throttle for a minute or so and back for the first 15-30 minutes. Go up to speed a bit more each time and then idle. REPEAT until you are up to full throttle. LISTEN for the start of any noise. If you hear anything "abnormal at any time, shut it down. If not, go mow. If you make it through the first hour of mowing, you're probably good.

***" Can we prevent that loud bang?"*** No absolute guarantee, but if you follow the procedure below, rest assured you can keep it to a minimum. When you are executing an intentional shutdown, be certain to perform the following steps BEFORE you arise from the seat. When traveling from the yard to your selected parking place: Disengage the deck by moving the PTO lever to OFF. Reduce engine speed to about half throttle by moving the Throttle lever to the slower RPM range. Select a moderate to slow ground speed by moving the speed control lever to somewhere between "1 and 4". Drive to your parking spot, go as slow as you like by adjusting the speed control lever. When you have the tractor in the desired parking spot: Leave the throttle lever at the mid RPM position. Push the Clutch/Brake pedal down and hold it there. Pull the speed control lever down to the PARK position and hold it there with your hand. While holding the speed lever in PARK, take your foot off the Clutch/Brake pedal. Next, move the Ignition key switch to the OFF (STOP) position. After the engine has completely stopped spinning, arise from the seat. If the engine still commits "Afterfire" even when using this procedure, the anti-afterfire solenoid is not working properly. Typically, any time you arise from the seat (with the engine running) without first turning off the deck blades, and locking the Clutch/Brake in the PARK position, you will probably hear a loud bang from the muffler.

Thanks for that link - very helpful read. So, I'm still trying to wrap my brain around all this before I go to far. Let me explain. First, I'm trying just to understand how this works. I understand it in theory and in that article but, in our setup, it looks like all it is really servicing is the water spigot on the side of the house. The water comes in from the left, down into the tank and also to the right through the honey well then just... on to the water spigot that comes off the house. That's it. Now, I CAN simply unthread the pipe a bit further down, and then into another pipe right by it, to hook the house to the well water in an emergency - as it was shown and explained to me by the seller. So, is it to keep and regulate pressure to the house, its there just in case of that? That might all make sense to me except, why does it make the bang sound when I use water out in the yard from a different spigot. I can't seem to understand how it is even involved there. I see the one pipe go into it. That's it. So anyway, on to what the article says, and others after I've googled a bunch. So, banging on the side of it, it does sorta sound more thud ish than hollow, so I do wonder if it is water logged. I understand if it is water logged the pump will turn on immediately any time you use the water. That is the case here. It does have the air valve at the top, and air does come out - not water. So that is good. I read I need it to be pre charged to the psi (minus 2) of what the pressure needs to be for the pump to turn on. Or two less than the .. in (something). I can't find the exact term again as I type this but it was in-something. SO now what I'm trying to figure out. How do I find out what that number is, I don't see anything on the pump. Am I to put the pressure valve on the drain at the bottom and see what it is? If it's over pressured or under pressured wouldn't that give a bad reading? Is that what the honeywell is for? It says 50psi It looks like on the right. I don't know what the "diff" is on the left. So, should I turn off the pump, drain everything, drain the tank, then pressurize (or depressurize) the air to 48 psi? Everything I see says this is a simple task and I feel like I'm almost there, almost understanding it... just not quite there yet. One thing I do know for sure, it's a good sign water didn't come out of the air inlet. ;)

Pure water has a pH of 7.0. While there are numerous opinions about the cause of pin holes in copper pipe, most lean toward pH on the Acidic (<7.0) side. Generally high ph can tend toward coating the inside of piping systems with a tightly adherent oxide film that retards leaking. In my particular area, WSSC added an additive (orthophosphate as per the EPA) to their drinking water supply and actually did not change pH to reduce local pin holing. Pls provide a link to the article you claim you authored suggesting that a pH of 9 was causing pin hole leaks. BTW, I personally supervised the operation of distilling units that generated "pure water"... did this for years and years.