I have an older Craftsman 12.5 hp riding mower. I took the head off and noticed some metal stuck to the front of the piston. That metal had made a dent in the head itself. I scraped it off and cleaned up the piston but there are two dents in the face of it now.

I figured out what caused this----the throttle shaft in the carburetor broke and obviously ended up in the head of the engine.

Does having these dents in the piston and head cause any issues? I pushed the piston back and the inside of the cylinder looks and feels smooth all the way around----it just seems to have those dents on the face of the piston and on the head cover.

 

It won't hurt anything. The notch at the top was made that way.