Tips on honing

[Andre Parker]

Dang, forgot to mention. If you do have a dial bore gauge, make sure you let the block cool to room temp or you will get a bigger reading if the cylinder is hot from honing. (expanding metal.)

[turbovanman]

If you do hone, stay away from the finger style, I have had no luck with them but a ball hone, works everytime.

[gasketmaster]

If you are honing this block in the car with the crankshaft in the engine then cleaning up the mess would be my major concern

The honing grit could easily find it's way into places it doesn't belong causing you way more headaches than you already have

If this is the case take Ken's advice and avoid honing if possible.

I'm with the other guys............it's most likely a hurt piston

[Andre Parker]

I would never advise honing with the crank in!! If your gonna do it, you need a bare block. Your gonna have to wash and wash the bores. Just make sure you blow them dry with air and spray oil or some wd 40 on it to prevent any rust as it will start almost as soon as it is dry.

[xjjunkie]

we hone all of our race blocks with a torque plate, all acc bolted to the block to simulate the stress that they would give, plus we hone all blocks at what the normal operating water temp is. (mostly 190 f). a round bore on a cold block will do you no good if it eggs when it is brought up to operating temp. on a 358 limited sprint motor with a cast iron block we saw on average a 12/15 hp gain. due to better ring seal. on a 410 sprint motor with a aluminum block we saw a average of 20 hp gain.. it's all about ring seal. we have a machine next to our ck-10 hone machine that pumps hot water though the motor to simulate the cooling system. when the block reaches the pre set temp we hone the bores.

scot

[turbovanman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by xjjunkie we hone all of our race blocks with a torque plate, all acc bolted to the block to simulate the stress that they would give, plus we hone all blocks at what the normal operating water temp is. (mostly 190 f). a round bore on a cold block will do you no good if it eggs when it is brought up to operating temp. on a 358 limited sprint motor with a cast iron block we saw on average a 12/15 hp gain. due to better ring seal. on a 410 sprint motor with a aluminum block we saw a average of 20 hp gain.. it's all about ring seal. we have a machine next to our ck-10 hone machine that pumps hot water though the motor to simulate the cooling system. when the block reaches the pre set temp we hone the bores. scot

NOw that is cool, thanks for the info!

[XR Tuner]

After you try every cleaning method above,take a paper towel and use WD-40 or auto tranny fluid.
My bet is that the towel will have some black on it.
Keep doing this until the towel comes out clean.
The theory behind this is that cast iron is porous and the thin oil floats the dirt out.
Not my idea,some guy named Grumpy Jenkins.
I have won a few bets with this one.

[15w/ashelby]

I don't know if there's some long term effects to honing bad but i honed mine myself with a generic autozone hone and i have 160 compression across the board with hastings rings and STD size mahle pistons. Maybe my engine is gonna blow up in a month but its accidentily seen 30PSI on TII injectors without an IC and hasn't flinched. This was my first time re-building an engine and I did everything wth handtools.

[turbovanman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by XR Tuner After you try every cleaning method above,take a paper towel and use WD-40 or auto tranny fluid. My bet is that the towel will have some black on it. Keep doing this until the towel comes out clean. The theory behind this is that cast iron is porous and the thin oil floats the dirt out. Not my idea,some guy named Grumpy Jenkins. I have won a few bets with this one.

Who's Grumpy Jenkins, lol!

[Andre Parker]

Most shops don't have the warm coolant when they hone. That would be the best ideal to have when rebuilding a motor. But most shops just dont have that. I would imagine that you could build a fixture to simulate that though??