honing cylinders

[hitace]

i want to hone the cylinders on one of my old outboards i was told a rigid hone would be much better to use then a ball hone.does anyone have any suggestions on where to get the stuff for honing.and whats everything i am going to need

 

[wbeaton]

Re: honing cylinders

I don't do much honing, but I use a ridge hone and a cordless drill (so the RPM's can't get too high). Hone at low RPM. Lubricate the cylinder(s) with ATF. Move the hone up and down the bore in a constant fluid motion. Check every 20-30 seconds until you get a nice cross-hatch pattern. Try to remove as little metal as possible.

 

[Texasmark]

Re: honing cylinders

The idea in honing is to just rough up the glaze of the cylinder walls so that you have something to polish the new rings. You don't want to hone too much. To me, stop when you have a uniform hone pattern all over the cylinder.

The suggested pattern is cross hatch at about a 30 degree angle. Wbeaton has the how to do it, the speed at which the hone moves in and out of the cylinder, coupled with the hone's rotational speed will determine the pattern.

On types of hones, a triangular bar-rock hone will not completely prepare a cylinder that has not just been bored, whereas the ball hone is designed to do just that.....it conforms to irregular surfaces.

Problem with a 2 cycle engine and ball hone however, is that the balls can and will get into the inlet and exhaust ports as the hone goes over them and could either damage them or the hone.

Mark