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He was running with the choke on while trying to diagnose the problem, which had already happened. The lean jets are used because of high altitude.
50,000 miles is a lot for a flatty, especially an old one. maybe it has just plain wore out, or some sort of accellerated wear was triggered by the recent teardown (20,000 miles ago) caused by the piston breaking up.
Hopefully careful and clean assembly with meticulous checking of parts refitted will enable it to be assembled up again and good for another 50,000.
I don't think a driver in the 50's would have expected to get 50,000 miles out of his 48 without getting an exchange motor fitted.
Lots of off road (unpaved) usage could have also brought on the accellerated failure, from dirt and dust ingress.
No-one knows what really happened, we're all guessing. but it is what it is. it's a motor that had new pistons fitted 20,000 miles ago and now is having the bottom end replaced.
if it were mine, once pressed back into service, I would (at my leisure) obtain a second motor, and have it gone through, and ready to fit. it may not be called on in an emergency, but i would be considering fitting it when the current motor has (lets say) another 30,000 on it. The pistons will have 50,000 on them.
These are old engines, they were never designed to last 250,000 miles without attention.
I acknowledge that some barners have got much higher mileages out of their motors. but in those cases the users and care taken to achieve those mileages are not typical.
Mart.