I was wondering: What is the best way to clean up cylinder bores for a re-ring job . ? .. Do you try to match the speed of the up and down movement of the drill and hone to approximate a 45 dgree swirl angle on the cylinder wall .. ? .. Or, does it matter, say in the case of honing for moly type rings .. .. ? .. Previously I used moly rings and chrome oil rings on my 327 .. Seems those chrome oil rings never did break in properly ... ? .. I recently bought a Lisle hone and it appears to be equiped with fairly fine grit stones
I was thinking of going with moly rings again, but with standard iron oil rings .. Is this the way to go .. .. ? ..
Inputs very much appreciated .. Thanks .
mrg

 

What you are doing is called deglazing the cylinder walls. When you hone you remove material to size the cylinder.
What I have been using for many years with great success is the multi balled hones. They come in different sizes and deglaze the complete cylinder wall. The stone type deglazers will miss any low spots on the walls.
I use a 1/2 drill and a lubricant, and get a rhythm going to create the 45 degree hatch pattern. It takes practice, but very doable.
Then I use brake clean to clean the walls then completely wash and scrub the walls with soap and water.
Then I oil the walls and rub it into the cylinders.
Hope this helps.

 

Agree with Plaidside!

Have also been using the ball deglazer (also known as "flex honing"). They are available in various grits and sizes, but mine is 320 grit which is perfect for the moly type rings I use. They are made by BRM (Brush Research Manufacturing, Inc.). My old catalog lists a phone number of 213-261-2193 located in Los Angleles. These tools are much easier to use than a stone type of hone. Each ball is on the end of a flexible rod (attached to the center post that chucks into your drill). The flexible nature of the rods allow the ***** to self align to the cylinder and keeps a constant pressure while honing. The stone type hones are difficult to keep aligned and are known to bell mouth the tops and bottoms of cylinders if the stones are pulled too far out either direction, or angled out of alignment. The ***** also give the cylinder walls a "plateaued finish" rather than a torn up finish that a hone does. A stone will leave a lot of peaks and valleys. The peaks being very sharp. Whereas the plateued finish does not have the sharp peaks. This plateueing holds the oil just as well and reduces the amount of wall and ring face material removed (and end up ciculating in the oil) when the rings seat (which with moly rings should be almost immediately).

One size will fit a range of cylinders (mine is a 4-1/4" which is recommeded for 3-3/4" to 4-1/4" bores). They are typically available in grits of 120 to 320 depending on what type of finish the ring manufacturer recommends.

Directions for use should come with flex hone.

Recommend going with moly rings for the top ring (they last forever and seat like now!) Standard ductile iron rings for the 2nd ring are OK. If you can afford it (or need it), would recommend a zero gap 2nd ring (Childs & Albert rings) for that ultimate seal.

Note that the rings determine what grit to use (don't use just any grit). If the grit is too coarse (if used with Moly rings), it will tear up the moly (and dump a lot of metal in the pan). If too fine (if used with Chrome rings), they never will seat.

Plasticman


[Modified by Plasticman, 11:13 PM 10/15/2002]

 

Thanks so much Plaidside and Plasticman for sharing the great info .. I'll make sure to use a ball type hone .. Better to do it right the first time, of course .. ! .. The extent that the forum members go to share their experience and insight is, well, second to none .. The "been there, done that" speaks volumes more than any generic Chilton manual ever could .. :cheers:
mrg