This is basically what was needed to free the piston enough to get to my master link on my timing chain. As you can see my cylinder head was still on at this point and give a great place to push the engine from while I pulled the vice grip. The pair of vice grips that I used barely had enough grip on the slippery shaft. If I put more leverage on the vice grips it would have just slipped off. So I carefully pulled the vice grips and loosened the piston. It was not as easy as it sounds. My engine was nearly worst case scenerio so you shouldn't have as much difficulty if you are doing the same. If you have some large enough grips for the gear that goes onto the crank than I would try and use that option first.
Space is limited so I went this route.
