Thanks to the excellent explanations and photos from several HB folks (eric s,JBorella), apologies to others I've left out) I managed to extricate the VERY HEAVY and impressive piston assembly.

As I suspected, and had been mentioned many times, there was still, after 5 months a COPIOUS amount of NOW really disgusting grease, factory applied. I had mentioned privately to a few here that from day one I smelled...and tasted what seemed like an automotive/mechanical smell. One whiff of that grease, and I knew I wasn't nuts. The exact same smell I'd perceived since day one.

I removed about all the grease, including under the seals, cleaned things with hot water, cutups, and some elbow grease. The chamber was fortunately clean as a whistle. I applied Dow11 inside there (lightly), and a more generous layer of 11 over and a bit under the seals. Also a wee bit on the joint where the lever lowers. A bit on the very top of the spring allowed the assembly to lower back in place more easily.

After a couple of cleaning pulls, I prepared a cappa for my daughter. I changed nothing. She commented it was the best I've ever prepared for her.

I urge ANYONE with a Strega, even if new, to get in there and remove that OEM lubricant, and replace with 111, or the equivalent.

Again, so many thanks to all who so generously shared their knowledge and experiences on this very fine machine.

BTW, Jim Schulman's HB/Strega videos are also highly recommended.

This is odd, mine had nothing like that. Let alone any odor. Maybe one day they ran low on lube and yelled "Guiseppi, go ana geta de Fiat!"

Hahaha. Fiat..."Fix It Again Tony!"
Whatever, the odor is gone. 3 in the family smelling it confirmed the mechanical lubricant type smell.
No matter, I'm having a fine time with the Strega and Forte combination.

Better still, I got a good look at what appears to be nice craftsmanship, and everything lined up real nice. No problems whatsoever getting everything back shipshape.