Honing a cylinder

[NHbalerman]

Can you hone a cylinder to a 0.010 oversize piston? These cylinder walls are rusted a little and need to be cleaned up but thought about honing it to the next bigger size which would be 0>010. What does it usually cost to bore the cylinders? This is on a wisconsin VF4D,that might be the best thing to do but was scared of the cost,it has been a while since I have had one bored

 

[Janicholson]

A Sunnen straight Hone with new stones will work well. it will require roughing stones medium , and finish stones. Boring at a machine shop will be much faster, and may be cheaper considering all aspects. Jim

 

[RESLLS]

The chances of keeping the cylinder walls true with just a hone are slim to nil. Going .010, get it bored. .001 hone it. Maybe just hone and oversize rings filed to correct gap with original pistons.

 

[Bob Collins]

Whoever does it, in is not practical to try to set up a boring bar to bore a cylinder that is already worn, to 0.010" oversize. As Janicholson says, a hone will do it but it will take a bit of time.

 

[Dieseltech]

Worked at a speed shop awhile, running a Sunnen CV616 hone. That machine would get it plus .010 in no time with the stone selection it had. If going to plus .030 a boring bar was used to plus .025, then finished in the Sunnen.

 

[Steve@Advance]

A power hone will, like the kind at a machine shop.

A spring loaded glaze breaker in a drill... Won't!

 

[SDE]

I have a Sunnen Hone at work. I have used it to remove about a .001 or .002, but it really made me unhappy to remove that much. I could have run 4 more good parts in the same amount of time that it took to correct the 4 I needed to rework.

 

[teddy52food]

I did a V465D Wis last winter with a straight hone to .010. Run it dry with the rough stones & it doesn't take long. Finishing to the right size with the fine stones takes time.

 

[used red MN]

No offense to resils, different people have different bases of knowledge. A ridgid hone such as those shown in the link are the go to item for serious engine builders for racing applications where extremely true and round cylinder wall finish is a number one priority. The types of hones shown are generally fit in a automated fixture that turns and stokes the hone to produce a preset cross hatch by degrees of there intersection. However, a veteran hand operator of a hone using a quality dial bore gauge can over bore a cylinder to 0.010 with great accuracy.
Quality hones

 

[RWT]

It's been a while since I had my shop but Sunnen then had 100 series stones that were 70 grit. Using oil I could take out .010 to finish size faster than I could set up bore and then finish hone. I honed to about .002 under. Then 200 series to a half under and then usually finished with 500 series.

My honing tank was a manual one with a gear motor that output at 99 RPM.

RT (my 2?)

 

[gab]

Think you could do it with a hone like this, forgot I had it, bought it at an old IH mechanics estate auction along with a stack of blue ribbon manuals. Must of been 20 years ago.

 

[dr sportster]

No you can't do it and I know because I have done it. It is a pain and a lot of honing . You are ahead to send it out for boring. You will take all day to hone plus 10. When you put your dial bore gauge into the cylinder you will find it is not round { round but not evenly honed to size- the spinning stones make it round but tapered as well]. Yes stones spinning in a hole do not always make an even hole. After all the honing both ends will tend to be flared out larger due to the nature of the hone. The guys that did it below are talking about a Sunnen hone ,I'm talking about a Lisle or Snap-on type drill motor driven hone. Not accurate - the boring bar is what makes the hole perfect again. The hone is to finish cylinders for the rings. I'm measuring with a Sunnen dial bore gauge to the ten thousands . You won't like what you see.

 

[dr sportster]

If you read about those hones ,it reads "the only ones that maintain alignment to the original bore" so if the bore is tapered how does it true the cylinder? It doesn't.

 

[Owen Aaland]

I have done quite a few engines .010 over with a ridged Sunnen hone. like earlier posted 100 grit roughing stones run dry can true up a cylinder in about 10 minutes. Medium and finishing stones run with oil finish the job in about 30 minutes total. Most shops are going to want to go at least .030 when using a boring bar.

Then largest jobs I have done is taking the C153 in my 2444 from standard to .010 over. I actually had a spot on one cylinder about the size of a penny did not clean up completely. I left it because it left more material for a future overhaul. I also took a Ford 391 from .040 to 060 over. The most time consuming was on Continental engine in a Massey Harris 101 Sr.
It was a patch job with a vertical crack in one cylinder. It was at 030 and I took it .125 over and pressed in a repair sleeve. I then took the repair sleeve back to standard since I needed a piston and the customer had some extra standard pistons. That job provided the iron powder that I used with my Magna Flux equipment for many years.