I've got a motor that was bored .030 over about 5000 miles ago, and I need to have it honed just to scuff up the cylinder walls so the rings will seat; there is no ridge that needs to be removed. Right now, before honing, the piston to sidewall clearance is perfectly within specs for my pistons (.0025 to .003). But the machine shop tells me that when they hone it, they will have to take off at least .002, which will put the clearance out of specs. My question is: if I hone it myself, can I take off just a little bit of metal, not enough to put it out of specs? Or does the honing process automatically take off .002 or more?

 

Think of it as "glaze breaking" rather than honing. Light use of a abrasive ball glaze breaker will accomplish the objective without excessive material removal.

Other options: 1) Don't hone or glaze break, use some Total Seal "Quick Seat" assembly dry lube (see the Sept '02 Popular Hot Rodding, page 86); 2) Take off the .002", have the piston skirts knurled to get the clearance back where you want it.

 

it'll take a lot of effort to remove .002, i'd guess they have a big "power hone" sort of machine. a glaze breaker, either the ***** or stones will take for ever to remove any noticable material. all you need is the surface scuffed, takes a few seconds to achieve that. i've honed bearings out to for checking shims on pinion gears and it takes a while to get them to slip on, i know bearings are harder.