Will you chrome the piston/cylinders to get a good fit?

the answer is no, because I wouldn't mind knowing where to get that done myself! 

            Hello Jay, here's the link   http://coxengines.ca/cox-.049-killer-bee-diesel-crank.html . Ken

Paul,
Reedys will run either direction.  There is no timing in the crank.  The experts can clarify this.

Spring starters help  solve the backward starting.   But, I 've watched Bill Lee start his reed engines with a backward flip and getting one flip starts.

        Just something to add to the equation. Wayne, I start my engines just like your suggesting. This does work but sometimes, you get that stubborn bugger. Also, over priming will result in the forward to backward run. When one does run backwards, I used to just grab the spinner with my fingers and squeeze to stop it. I'm well aware that from a safety feature this can result in something bad. What I didn't expect is what happened to my engines. I quickly ditched the cam starters for the simple fact that I felt they were robbing power. Most if not all of my Cox traditional springs had hitch hiked a ride with the propeller bending them all up. It wasn't until afterwards I realized the benefit of the hex drive cam which prevents backward runs. I'm still not a fan of them especially due to the fact it falls off when one doesn't have a prop bolted on.

Reason I feel this is important is that later on after cutting my fingers several times, I learned an important lesson about sanding props and wearing a starter glove. This now enabled me to be quite aggressive with the spinner when it did run backwards. The constant grabbing of the spinner actually wore out some of the crank fits to the case. Holding the spinner would really vibrate the engine. This was readily apparent in my Black Widow engines as I could see the anodizing inside the bore with crazy wear marks. I had a horrendous amount of side to side play which would vibrate so badly it would kill off several thousand rpm's.

As Larry Renger stated, once the anodizing is worn out the case isn't far behind. I also contribute this to the fact that certain anodizing process's are harder than the aluminum itself. I had read prior that my practice of stopping the engine indeed will do exactly as I just described.
Lessons learned and the proper way is to place your thumb and forefinger over the fill and overflow vents and indeed the engine will stop.

Crankcases can be purchased rather inexpensively nowadays, but I don't see the need to ruin one due to my experience. Ken