Ball hone grit

[montidale]

I was gonna post this over on the 2N ford board, but I figured I would post it here because there’s probably more chance of getting an answer from different people. I am re-ringing a 2N Ford tractor. I am going to use a ball hone to hone the cylinders. I usually use my brother-in-law‘s ball hone but he’s out of town. So I’m going to pick up a ball hone but they have different grits. What grit does everybody use? I’m thinking 280. I have honed a few engines over the years, but never gave a thought to what grit the hones were.

 

[rustred]

i use the 3 stone hones. 280 seams on the course side. i prefer to be around 400 to keep rings from wearing .long as you get your 45 degree pattern.

 

[tom upton]

Not sure this is answering your question, but the problem with ball hones are they dont really show wear spots in cylinder. They are good for simple deglazing if bore is reasonably true but dont remove any matl. to speak of, and you cant really see were any low spots are. Stone hones even spring loaded v/s fixed will help to linealy true up a cylinder bore to some extent, and actually allow you to see were bores are low thus giving you the spots to meausure with your bore guage. In some cases telling you bores are too far out of spec to use? That said if you know your bores are good and just need a deglazing the ball type stone is fine. Your ring type/material should determine the grit. Check with your ring supplier but for standard iron rings I believe the stones I use are 180 maybe 220, but will have to check out in the shop in the morning. I dont like to disagree with rustred , but always thought you want a slight bit of wear on cast rings so they seat properly?

 

[Fritz Maurer]

A ball hone isn't my first choice but they do a good job of blending the ridge to the rest of the cylinder.
180 is good I've used that for years.

 

[miangus]

It depends on what you are doing. A 200 grit might be fine for a rough cleanup to check the block or install sleeves. I would not put new rings in a bore finished with 200 grit. I like to finish with something in the 400-grit range or finer. I like to see a ridged hone used first for new pistons and rings. I used to use a 600-grit ball hone when replacing rings in an engine that was just being refreshed. The important thing is to carefully Scrub that bore with dish soap and water to get all of the grit out.