I am rebuilding my engine, and I need to know if I should bore or hone my cylinders. Ive been told to look for a ridge at the top of the cylinders. My cylinders have a ridge, but it doesnt go all the way around, and it barely catches my finger nail. They dont look banged up or scratched inside, pretty smooth. Do you think that the ridge I have is enough to warrant boring it, or should a good honing take care of it. I talked to a mechanic and he said to never hone any cylinder no matter what. Something about rings not sitting right. Also what would happen if I just left the little ridge in? I really dont want to have to bore it. Thank you

 

depends on the quality of the build you are doing. if you are just re ringing it you could get away with a hone. but first measure the bore. if its out of spec its pretty pointless going through all the trouble of tearing the block apart only to install some new rings in an oval bore. if the ring ridge is minimal it should be fine. all that is is the wear difference from where the top rings travel stops

 

i dont know who your mechanic is but a hone is how they put the cross hatch in the cylinder. the cross hatch is what helps seat the rings. if you dont have the cross hatch your rings arent going to seat properly its one of the ways to tell how much your engine has worn. every good machinist that i know will hone a cylinder after he bores it to put a cross hatch in the bore.

Something that i found totally amazing when i pulled down my 3.slow it still had cross hatch in the cylinder bore at 300k miles thats just insane i have never in my life seen something like that especially on a V engine maybe a I but never a V.

 

Right. If you bore the cylinder, it is required to be honed as well. But you do not need to bore it in order to hone it. If the wear on the bores (all of them) is minimal (not oval or tapered beyond specs), then simply re-honing the cylinders will clean them up and allow new rings to seat properly.

 

Talked to an old timer round my town, showed him my motor, he said that my ridge is basically nothing. He says he has a hone and will show me how to do it. Also Ive been wondering if I need to replace my oil pump. It doesnt look like a part that could fail to me. Mabe by an act of god, but my oil presure was fine before the rebuild.

 

to me its one of those parts you just replace like the waterpump and timing belt even though the originals worked fine. its just insurance think about what a failed oil pump would mean. it would mean that your whole rebuild was a waste of time. And you should have just thrown the money away instead, it wouldnt have taken as much time or grief on your part.


my vote replace.

but then again when i do a rebuild i put new pistons, rings, waterpump, oilpump, all bearings. i have the heads checked for any warpage, the block gets honed. basically when im done with an engine its brand new.