Honing cylinder liners - good or bad?

[AlfaNeely@domain.elided]

       My theory on honing engine cylinders is that yes, you need to do it.  
You are not trying to make them round, nor larger.  You are breaking the 
glaze from the original pistons and rings.  You may be able to see the 
original cross hatch pattern, but you need to cut a bit of tooth to help the 
new rings seat.
       I made a little holder of tuba fours to hold the liner.  I put it in 
my parts washer and use the solvent for lubricant.  You do not want to hone a 
cylinder dry as the hone will chatter.

       On my last two rebuilds, I ended up with new pistons and liners.  The 
problem was not the liners, but the pistons.  I had two sets of pistons from 
relatively low mileage Bosch spiders that were quite scored on one side of 
the piston skirts.

Ciao,
Russ Neely
Oklahoma City



In a message dated 07/28/2002 4:22:49 PM Central Daylight Time, 
owner-alfa-digest@domain.elided writes:


> Date: Sun, 28 Jul 2002 08:19:48 -0700
> From: "Daegrigg (Don)" <daegrigg@domain.elided>
> Subject: Re: Honing cylinder liners - good or bad??
> 
> John,
> 
> Thank you very much for your thoughts on honing.  It is timely for me since
> I am in the middle of an engine rebuild for my '86 spider.  Some additional
> questions if you will.
> 
> The engine has 110K on the original pistons and rings and was not burning or
> using oil excessively before the teardown so everything is standard.  I
> checked the gap on the new Deves rings  and It is .016 inches which is right
> at the lower end of the range Deves recommends for my piston size.  There is
> very little ridge that I can detect.
> 
> Now the questions,  I have a typical DYI hone that is used with the electric
> drill.  I have read about different  grades of honing stones (course, fine ,
> etc.) but they seem to apply to professional shop type hones.    For my DYI
> effort ( I use to race/rebuild Giulietta's years ago) how do I know how much
> honing is enough; do I need to use a "honing oil"?; is this the same as a
> light maching oil or such; should I hone with the cylinders in the car or
> remove?
> 
> Thanks for your thoughts.
> 
> Don
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