Hi Camo,
The old fullcranks are a great engine and good to learn on, especially with the great help from this site. Did my first one up with help from here.
It is good to look for other donor mowers. Recently did up a Victa tilt a cut and used donors (including a decompression valve) off another free mower! Both are documented here.
You might find one with a good barrel to warrant buying a piston.
Good luck and happy tinkering. There aren't any 'dumb' questions.
