First I want to say that all the information on this site has helped me do things on my car than I thought I would ever be doing including an engine rebuild. Now I have de-glazed the cylinders (I have a 305 and its staying that way) I have measure the bore on each cylinder as best I could here is what I got #1 3.737, #2 3.736 , #3 3.7375, #4 3.737, #5 3.738, #6 3.737, #7 3.7375 and #8 3.738. I still have a bit of a ridge on most of the cylinders do I keep going and get rid of the ridge all together? Also when I buy the new rings what is the limit the bore can be for the standard 3.736 rings? Just wondering if I could get oversized rings if needed?? Thanks in advance for the help.

 

As long as you keep your same old pistons, and don't rev the engine higher RPM than it used to get, then the ridges shouldn't be any problem.
My Speed-Pro catalog doesn't show any +0.005" ( file-fit ) rings for a standard-bore 305. But at 3.738", they shouldn't be necessary. There are cheaper rings, but the S-P moly are E-356K.
And it would be good to make sure that none of the gaps are tighter than 0.015"

 

Thanks for the info.

 

I would assume people still use a ridge reamer....its a cutting tool turned with a wrench that cuts away metal just at the top of the bore

 

Buy a ridge reamer and cut the ridges. It makes installing the pistons safer, you take the chance of braking a ring and everything slips right in. I broke a ring once when I did not cut the ridge, Learned this lesson the hard way. As for the rings, I file fit each one to each cylinder as stated above no tighter than .015.

 

Ridge reamers are for guaranteed overbores. If you're trying to reuse your old pistons, don't use a reamer.