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How do you know you are keeping the inside of the cylinder straight when honing it? I'm afraid that despite my best efforts to move the tool in and out I am not evenly distributing the pressure and time spent on all parts of the cylinder.

Any tips would be appreciated =)

You measure it, but that is only one of your concerns. Do you know what type of hone, stone grits and cross hatch pattern to use?

PM me for details.

Brian

Brian's right. It will take a dial bore gauge ($300) to measure and a good sound hone another $300 at least, to do the job properly. I'd suggest finding a good machine shop, one that does motorcycle stuff is even better, and have them do it for you. For a freshen up, when the cylinders are fairly sound and not scratched up, you can use a ball hone in a drill motor to remove glaze but don't expect to correct for taper or out of round. You can buy a 3", 300 grit ball hone for under $50.

As for technique, the faster the drill runs, the faster you stroke. I prefer about 50% speed. Look for a pattern of about 45 degrees.

New cylinders come with about .002 clearance over pistons. General race prep takes this clearance out to .0035 to .0045. Once cylinders get much larger than .006, the rings will become problematic with a lack of ring land support and you'll get ring flutter and leakdown at high rpm.

So you can see with just a few thousandths to play with, "homemade" becomes problematic. Good luck.

Thanks for the tips Brian -

Just trying to get a feel for what you're talking about. I can't seem to find a good honing tool online in that price range - would you mind giving me an example of a brand or model to look for?

Thanks!

Goodson.com
Dave

Dave's right. I use Goodson all the time. I found my used Sunnen on ebay and spent some bucks on new stones etc.

I would say Brush Research makes the only good ball hones. That is probably what Goodson sell. Do a Goggle search for someone cheaper than Goodson.

http://www.brushresearch.com/flex-hone.php

Brian

Brian is correct- Brush Research makes the ball hones that Goodson sells- you might even find them on Amazon

Lisle makes a cylinder hone- believe the number on it is 16000.

Dietmar
http://www.quixoteracing.com

Thanks for the tips guys.

If I understand correctly, a flex hone is good for freshening up a cylinder (removing glaze and possible some light scratches) but i need a real honing tool to fix up cylinders that need to be bigger our structurally fixed. Correct?