Whenever I hone my own blocks, where the surface is not bad enough to require a trip to the machine shop...I use diesel fuel as the cutter. It's something I've always done because my Stepdad suggested it many years ago and it's worked great ever since.

My question is, will regular gas work the same or is there a reason to use diesel specifically?

Edit: Does it maybe have something to do with diesel fuel having some kind of an oil base?

 

First let me say that gasoline is extremely dangerous and no way do you want to use it due to its flamable and explosive properties as compared to diesel. There is something called "flash point" that relates to combustible mixtures. The flash for gas is about 200 and 0 for diesel. Don't try this at home boys & gals but a 0 flash means that you can strike a match and put it out in a tub of diesel. A 200 means that you're going to turn yourself into a ball of fire if you try the match thing.

As far as your lubrication question, technically both gas and diesel have an oil base and have therefore each have some inherit lubrication properties. Diesel will be a better lubricator since it is a heavier petroleum product.

 

When I did my block I went to a hardware store and bought honing oil used for sharpening knives and chisels. It worked great.

 

Me too.

 

Cool, now I know. I probably would never have tried using gas for the cutter unless someone said it's okay. I knew the flash points were different but I had no idea that they shared opposite ends of the spectrum. Great to know. Anyway, I have the diesel and am gonna hone now.

 

Before you burn down the shop,

Flash point is the lowest temperature at which a liquid can form an ignitable mixture in air near the surface of the liquid. The lower the flash point, the easier it is to ignite the material.

That being said, gasoline has a Flash Point of -45 F
Diesel or #2 Fuel Oil has a flash point of a minimum of 100 F

There is another issue of autoignition temperature
for gasoline it's 563 F and diesel 494 F.

Use light cutting oil.

 

forget a glaze breaker hone and all the problems involved with it, get a bubble hone, a complete moron can make a beautiful finish with one, if the bore is straight (not tapered) and has no thrust ridge it's an excellent solution to get a fresh cross hatch pattern. They are a tad exopensive, 100$ or so from McMaster for one that'll do a 4" bore...but it's money well spent.


looking good or what....

 

Thanks for that info too. I just finished honing a Cad 500. Used diesel, and my trusty honer. Went well, bores are smooth and clean, and ready for a good cleanup. Maybe I'll look intoa good cutting oil my next go at honing. I may be working another engine through in a month or so and I'll try the oil then.

 

Can you show a pic of a Bubble Hone? I have not heard of this yet.

 

Go to McMaster Carr web page at:
http://www.mcmaster.com/

and type in part number
4424A35
It'll bring up the catalog page with a picture.
(That's the part number for the coarse grit hone - don't use that one...)

...and the reason diesel fuel works is that diesel is an oil - same as home heating oil#2. Gasoline has no lubricating qualities, and would therefore be useless as a cutting oil regardless of its flashpoint.

 

Here's a pic:

 

Cool. I like that. If I honed more often I'd buy it right now, but I do maybe one or two jobs a year that need a hone. Usually the bores get machined.

I like the idea though.

 

They're also known as a "FlexHone"... been around for a long, long time.

I use them instead of stones. Haven't use a stone set in over 30 years.

They come in many different grits, diameters, and lengths.
You have to select the one that matches your requirements.
Having been in the Automotive Machine Shop business, I have a wall full of them.

As hinted above though, they do not correct anything except surface texture. Taper, wear-ridge, out-of-round are not addressed using a flex hone.

Honing stones are only slightly more effective regarding those problems.... which, except for wear-ridge, require boring equipment.

Check this out...
http://www.brushresearch.com/

Here's an interesting one...
http://www.flexhone.com/

Tom

 

ball hone and K1,,,, done many time's

 

I knew a guy that forgot to grind the ridge, and he broke a ring during the install. Was that directly related to the ridge or did he catch it on the block surface?

 

He caught it on the block.

Although the rings will "snap" out against the worn portion of the bore, they should not break at that point.

They break while trying to get past the block face.

Even a small tap is enough to break a ring when it has caught up on the top of the block. It's usually unnoticeable, and the piston goes down into the bore. When the engine starts, the jagged edge of the ring where it is broken digs into the cylinder wall and can do enough damage to require a sleeve or a re-bore.

There is a machining step that is done to produce a small bevel at the top of the cylinder bore. It is very slight and does not affect compression etc. The ring can ride this bevel down into the bore at piston install time. This machining step is not "assumed"... you generally have to ask the machinist to do it if you want it. Even then, they forget sometimes.

The use of tapered piston installing rings (as opposed to a band type ring compressor) helps to avoid this, but even with that form of ring compressor, if the block is not bevelled, you can still break a ring.


Edit... I should note that not removing the ridge can also cause a ring to break when the engine is run.
The distance between the crank centerline & the top of the 1st compression ring can change after a rebuild, and when the engine is run, the ring hits the ridge and breaks.

It can also break under high rpm due to "rod stretch".. the piston, rod etc can stretch enough to cause interference between the top compression ring and a ridge. You should always remove the ridge.

This is one of the causes of engine failure when a "Granny Grocery Getter" is taken over by a lead foot Grandson... the engine develops a wear pattern based on long term useage. When revved beyond that wear pattern... rings can hit the ridge and kaboom.

 

That's why I ALWAYS grind the ridge. I have a list of things to do before an engine goes to a machine shop even if they're doing most of the work. Ridge grinding is one of those.

 

ridge reamer...a perfect tool to destroy an otherwise good block.

 

I use a flex hone and Napa honing oil, great combination without the diesel smell

 

I really didn't mind the diesel smell, and I like that it's easily sprayed from a bottle, where it would seem harder to do that with an oil.