Thread: Honing, Is it a big deal?

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Originally posted by Johnwalkeasy
I don,t have a honing tool. What I have always done is take about a 120 sanding paper and clean out the cilinder bores so the rings could seat. Is that a No No, or is it that big a deal? I am at that point in rebuilding my 327. Should I Get hold of a honner or just hit with sand paper? Thanks, John.

The finish put on the cylinder walls is very important.With the wrong finish you might have problems with the rings seating.In other words you could lose h.p.If you have a coated ring (moly,plasma moly, etc.) and the finish is to rough you will flake the baked on coating right off the ring.Also the "cross hatch " pattern is very important.If you would look at the piston rings and cylinder walls under a microscope you would see peaks and valleys.When people talk about the rings being "seated" this means the rings and cylinders have smoothed out some of those peaks and valleys.