Cylinder liner honing, Here's my result...

[JeffreyOlson@domain.elided]

I decided NOT to do it on a 108K mile, '85 Spider 
Graduate w/original engine.

I went ahead and installed a set of NEW 
liners/pistons/rings purchased from Linea Rossa for $325 
including shipping.

The old liners had NO wear ridge or scoring and looked 
new.  The pistons had some light scuffing on the intake 
sides.  The rings also appeared very good.  I have not 
yet taken any measurements to determine how much wear 
there actually is.

For some reason, this car had poor dry compression 
w/less than 40 psi on all cylinders(indicative of 
leaking valve seats/blown head gasket?) but wet 
compression readings of 135psi on #1 and #4 cylinders
(indicative of bad rings AND the other stuff?).  This 
even after the head was surfaced and installed with new 
head gasket.  

Long story short, I decided to just go ahead and install 
new liners/pistons w/the head rebuild.  Seemed more time 
and cost-effective and the amount of 
disassembly/reassembly is about the same.  For about 
$100 more or so, you might as well install new.

I also decided to install new connecting rod bushings
(about $30) since the old ones showed just a bit of 
scoring.

This project ended up as an economy engine rebuild.  
Hopefully have it up and running by the end of the week.

I would like to get a local machine shop to hone the old 
liners, clean up the pistons, and install new rings just 
to price compare and see the results.  possibly keep as 
spares for the next time I tackle this project.  
Hopefully NEVER!

Some guy on eBay is selling his OLD liners and pistons! 
The pictures make them look very used up rough but they 
are getting bids anyway!

By the way, you can actually remove the entire oil sump 
with the engine in the car.  I had to remove the oil 
pump with the upper pan hanging loose and then jack the 
raer up the engine up ever so slightly to get it to 
clear the subframe and crankshaft bolts.

My '86 Spider Veloce has the original engine and head 
with 115K miles of aggressive driving and still runs 
great with little oil consumption and good compression.  
Go figure?

Then again, I've had 4 BMW's, all with WAY over 200K 
miles on the original engines and they ran like new!

Pretty cool though how that Alfa engine goes together!

Jeff
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