COX 049 crankpin-to-conrod clearance

Gents,

I made a golden deal on ebay buying an old 049 in apparently new condition (the one with the stamp-size red backplate, used in the Stuka...super compression, good old 1970..s quality from Santa Ana)..While I have a bunch of new 049-s TeeDee-s etc., I decided to put this one in my R/C plane which I originally built for one of my TeeDee049-s just to check if the Babe Bee category will pull the birdie the same way the TeeDee can (It sure can as hell....).

I made the mistake of dismantling the said (and then sad) Babe Bee and noted the ball-joint had a bit large clearence that I tried to mend with the resetting tool...needless to say that - despite my numerous succesful adjustments before, and with the fine use of the hammer on the tool I managed to expand the piston head in a slight mushroom shape, causing the piston to jam a bit in the cylinder. (I almost went crazy....you do not touch your vintage COX engine if it is apparently perfect!!!!!!)

After a few test-bench runs that partly released the jam of the piston (and sustained the original compression !!!) and a couple of really convincing flights in the R/C bird I noted that the conrod clearance at the crankpin end is a bit loose...though I do not see this larger than in any of my new 049-s.

Any idea if the loose connection on the crankpin (how much do you think the normal clearence is?) may shorten the engine life? I guess the crankpin wears off much slower than the balljoint end, if I simply consider how hotter the balljoint is and thus the lower the viscosity of the lube castor is than at the crankpin end...

Assuming that the crankpin is loaded way higher in e.g a COX car than by my slightly jammed piston in a plane I am not sure if I damaged it at all...I would just like to read your opinion that I thank you in advance.