Just purchased a honer for my rebuild next weekend. How long should I hone each cylinder for or how do I know when honing is complete?

Oil the hones and place the unit in the bore. Slowly start the rotation of the hone. At the same time move the hones quickly up and down in the bore while running 60-150 RPM on the drill. After 20 seconds or so check for the correct crosshatch. It should look like a basket weave with the angle mentioned above. I took about 1 minute per cylinder. Then use a good stiff brush and scrub the bores with hot, soapy water to remove all traces of honing material. Rinse with plenty of water. Then dry and reoil the bores to protect them from rust.

Use a standard variable speed electric drill. A crosshatch pattern in the cylinder bore when done aids in breakin in and correct oil dispersion. 45 degrees is the target angle of the crosshatch to shoot for...

He has it right. Is your hone a ball hone or one with three flat stones? I use a ball hone in my shop for rebuilds and it works well with ATF fluid as a lube. I have also seen it used with 5w-30 however. The key is not to spin it too fast.

Originally posted by CODE4
He has it right. Is your hone a ball hone or one with three flat stones? I use a ball hone in my shop for rebuilds and it works well with ATF fluid as a lube. I have also seen it used with 5w-30 however. The key is not to spin it too fast.

I have the stone honer. The ball hone was like 3 times as expensive and i'm told they yeild relatively the same results.

ok so let me get this straight...oil the stones, up and down in the cylinder for appx. a minute, clean the cylinders, coat with oil to prevent rust...

...sounds easy enough. ;)

Yea thats all it takes, The idea is to remove the glaze left by the previous rings and give the new rings a cylinder surface that will wear and mate together. While you are there mic the cylinders to make sure you are not out of round or tapered.

Terry
96 Eagle Talon ESI....Daily driver

97 Eclipse.........

ehhhh, I just took my block to the machine shop. :D

Originally posted by DegreE
ehhhh, I just took my block to the machine shop. :D

Yeap, it's convenient, but I actually wanna learn this stuff.

I have the 3 flat stones, works great. The first cylinder will probably take you longer than the other 3 just because it's your first. Just pay attention to the cross thatch and you'll be good...

I had to do a re-ring job on an engine that had been recently bored and honed. I just needed to put a nice cross hatch on the surface for the new rings. I did the exact procedure noted above, but I'll add my two cents. I used a cheap 3-stone tool and WD-40. It took some practice to get the rythm right. Altering the speed of the drill and the speed of your vertical motion will determine cross hatch angle. Increasing the drill speed makes the cross-hatch angle closer to horizontal. Increasing the speed of your vertical motion makes the cross-hatch angle closer to vertical. Whenever you insert or remove the tool from the bore, compress the arms so that the stones don't scratch the surface in the wrong way. I cleaned everything with brake cleaner and paper towels. I kept cleaning until the towels came out spotless. Then, I re-oiled the bores. My rings broke in quickly and I have excellent compression.

Corbin

'95 ESI-T
Now with more power and fewer leaks



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