cylinder hone tools

[Renze]

I have ordered gaskets and bought a valve polishing suction cup to rebuild the heads of my 3011 this summer:
I was thinking i might change the piston rings as well, because it ran 11000 hrs since 1967.
I know a change of piston rings requires a cylinder hone to restore the cross hatch pattern, to allow the rings to break in to the liner.

What grade of hone stone do i need, and how rough does it need to be ?
Anything to watch for when doing this job ?\

I did polish some valves on a small Deutz engine in a previous job but never took down into a block before.

 

[yankeerider]

I seemed to recall that it depends on the material of the rings you are using, and a Google search on "cylinder finish ring material" led me to this site, among others: Piston Rings and Surface Finish: Engine Builder

I have cylinders that have been awaiting my reassembly attention for a couple of years now (too many other projects) and I will buy a multi-ball hone for that rather than the 3-stone honing tool.

 

[DennisMI]

A lot will depend on the amount of taper in the cylinder. Just under the ridge that's worn in the cylinder you will be able to measure how much wear you have. New rings will accept only a certain amount of taper from the top of their stroke to the bottom of their stroke because they will be expanding and contracting within the ring grooves in the pistons as they go up and down. the outside surfaces won't be parallel with the cylinder and will only have an edge in contact with the cylinder. If you're planning to use a deglazing hone the kind that's spring loaded with three stones, and there is considerable wear in the cylinder, you will probably want cheaper rings. If you are using a hone that's adjustable and can put considerable pressure on the cylinder you can straighten up the cylinder, but then you can be making the cykinder oversize, and you will need to find out how much oversize the piston can take as well as the amount of oversize the rings can take. It isn't very much. You'll need to measure the amount of wear, then find out how much wear the different rings that are available will accept. I hope I don't tell you too much, or not enough, because I used to rebuild engines in a shop.

 

[KubotaSam]

You also need to remove the ridge (unworn surface at top of cyl wall) before you install new rings. If not you will break the new top ring or the piston between the ring gap. You need a ridge reamer (special tool) to do this properly.

 

[automech]

I like the cylinder deglazer hones that have a bunch of little round stones attached to stiff wires rather than the spring loaded 2 or 3 stone hones. You buy the one that fits your cylinder size. They are cheaper than a good quality spring loaded hone, and do a nice job. Run it up and down in your cylinder till you get the results you need, then wash the grit out with hot soapy water. Make sure you don't leave any grit behind for your new rings, they don't like it.

 

[Wis Bang]

You also need to remove the ridge (unworn surface at top of cyl wall) before you install new rings. If not you will break the new top ring or the piston between the ring gap. You need a ridge reamer (special tool) to do this properly.

When Daddy was showing me how, we used the ridge reamer b/4 pulling the pistons out.

 

[dfkrug]

I have ordered gaskets and bought a valve polishing suction cup to rebuild the heads of my 3011 this summer:

If you are going to lap your valves (not regrind the seats), here is a trick
I learned years ago: install the valve in the guide after putting the
grinding compound on the seat. Chuck the stem up in a varaible speed
electric hand drill. Run the drill slow or fast as needed, with a bit of
pulling tension in the stem. Super fast and easy to control.

My JD block is in the machine shop for boring....I let the machinist decide
what kind of cross-hatch honing to do on the new bores.