Honing For The Home Engine Builder

We have a low mileage engine that we tore completely down to check everything and we just wanted to clean the flash rust out of the cylinders after a home-brew hot tank. Is it ok to use a ball hone for that purpose?

Thank you for taking the snob out of engine work. You are correct, a LA can run forever using this method.

Thanks man.

This looks like good advice. Thanks

Thanks for your videos. Great information. I'm working on a standard sbf. What brand of cast piston rings do you recommend? Thank you.

I may have only met about a dozen 5.3 and 4.8 blocks but those cylinders due to a more or less perfect piston design never go out of round and ball hone is perfect for em. Cleans up that crud they get in the bottom of the cylinders which has led to many snapped connecting rods. for some reasons the oil stays around the rings and really does not clean or lubricate that lower area of the cylinder so the ball hone is perfect brought back many engine where I live in the northeast these vortek motors also get a lot of condensation inside which does made the oil get gummy especially the spring and fall when temps yo yo... If ya do a 5.3 and 4.8 even the 6.0 engines pay attention to the lower areas of the cylinder not just middle of the bore..

Neither of these products "hone". They're just deglazers. So it does not matter which you use. Dingle berry is easier. If you want an actual "hone" you will have to go to a shop.

that honing tool is only used for giving the bore a cross hatch. that's all.

I love the honest truth. I can’t afford shit!! So I’m gonna stuff what I can scrap together and send it!! Thanks Uncle Tony!!

I worked at a Ford dealer in mid 80s and that hone was the Ford recommended procedure for reringing the 6.9 Diesel engine when they were burning oil. Reason they were burning oil is that people babied them when they were new. Same thing happened with IH tractors that I used to work on. If you babied them they used oil.

From a engine builder and machinist that has run a very successful engine machining business for over 30 year's, and has hone thousands of bores ,that 3 stone hone will follow any out of round and taper in the bore. For this guy to say you can correct roundness and taper is just bullshit. The flex hone is a far better option for the home builder that has no experience in honing cylinders.

Honing is for a little surface clean and that's it.
You are never going to change your bore and it be round or match your piston.

Rebuilding my first engine out of my truck right now after it blew, helping me learn a lot with your videos. Have both hones available to me just wasn’t sure which one to use

I was taught 55 years ago ball hones were not for daily driver engines ; I have successfully built many y types of engines by learning how to correctly repair or replace worn parts

We have seen you build a used engine before with Luner Lunatic. How did that work out for you?

I wish he had shown how to use the tool properly. He has a great knowledge and good educational skills.

I've never had any trouble with these used them for over 40 yrs

How is that spring loaded hone going to make a round cylinder?

great vid....got me 2 sub

Love that this video has little or no editing. Turn the camera on and turn Tony loose. This man knows his stuff!

He s a shade tree mechanic all engine rebuilders use that tool for rings to seat

He speaks the truth. I can tell by his forearm to bicep ratio that he has turned many many wrenches. Not to mention his swollen hands.

I know it's off topic, but, if you have an engine with a spun main bearing that has damaged the block, can you line weld and line bore it back to spec?

Ball hones are designed to help create a plateau, not to clean up a cylinder. They are for deburring. Diamond honing can leave ring destroying metal shards, the ball hone breaks these off and leaves an almost perfect sealing surface.

👍👍👍

Thanks Tony, never knew

I use a stone on them first plus what the machine shop does then just to clean it up out a BB hone in it

Always use a ball hone to degalze. Never use after you bore.

Who calls a glaze buster a hone? Is that some Murican ignorance?

Those ball hones are used in the honing process after a rebore, removing the cross-hatch burrs.

I used to be an automotive machinist. I remember when the brush hones first came out there was controversy as to whether they might embed silicone in the cylinder wall. I guess people aren't concerned about that any more.The little three stone hone is really a different animal from the hones used after boring cylinders or a CK-10. It doesn't push both stones and guides out the same amount which is what you need to make a cylinder round and straight. Also a ridged hone is intended to be used for metal removal, not just to crosshatch the cylinder walls which is what you need to remove the fractured metal caused by a boring tool bit. I suppose that the there is some benefit to the ridged hone showing wear spots but honestly I think the best practice would be to use a bore gauge or inside micrometers and actually measure the cylinders to see what you have got.

I'm sure that you know all this but some of your viewers might not.

We always called those glaze breakers, just for refreshing.

Thank you for a good and interesting lesson, it's always a good day when i learn something new.

i never thought to use map gas...nice work for cheap resources

Some of us don’t have big money

Now DON'T BE SAYIN not to use the ball hone, that ball hone has its place, but neither is to check high and low spots, that's why you have dial indicators for...that's the correct way to check for highs and lows, then after, you figure out your math, you bore. But if you bore and maybe you're further out than what you wanted, instead of using a bar hone that removes more metal, you use a ball hone that creates the hash pattern, but it removes almost no metal...so it does have its place in a shop!..

Thank you!!! It makes me crazy when people poo poo doing economical home projects. For most of us it's the difference between doing them or not doing them at all! We don't have bank accounts like Jay Leno!

Does anyone with experience know if the ball hone removes even the slightest amount of material from a cast iron SBC block? I'm speaking of 0.0005" or so. I had a great machine shop maaterfully machine my block (this is a 350 ci block from 1970 and they took it 0.030 over) but I didn't give them the pistons with the block, heads, and crank. They've since closed (retired) and now I find I'm 0.0005 short from meeting the required minimum clearance of the piston Mfg (UEM, and in case it matters to anyone these are KB hypereutectic pistons - model 9902HC). I'd really hate to take the beautifully machined block to another shop to remove just that pesky half a thousandth. I'm hoping I could get lucky and that ball hone might take off just the smallest bit of material.

Right on dude. “Done is good”. Just cause you don’t have money to throw, don’t mean you can’t make it work.

Every machanic has a different opinion just like doctors and lawyers and so on !! I do agree that the ball type hone is not a hone to use on worn out engines but if you’re cylinder checks out good then I like the ball hone just to clean it up !! A regular hone if you don’t watch out cane cost you big time !!

The seller of this mid 50's GM said, "freshen up the engine", and he told me use a bottle brush hone and not the flat stone to hone the cylinders. He felt it took away too much material...bottle hone, then new rings. New timing chain, camshaft, bearings, lifters. I'm going to pull the heads and see what I have....I came here to see how to organize all the freakin parts that come off the engine and make sure nothing gets mixed up !!

Do you think the stone hones do a better job? Come back to reality, Tony, neither help, you need a honing machine. These cheap drill stone hones won't correct anything. You need to bore and machine hone it to correct the problems you have. Otherwise, use both hones to "finish" them ... lol. Remember, as you hone, the cylinder is getting bigger and messing up piston to wall clearance ... there's no good way to do what you are showing. Something will end up being off in the end.

I found that whether you ask advice on how to change a lightbulb or to rebuild an engine, you'll always be met by "experts" trying to talk you out of it if you cannot afford to spend thousands on racing quality equipment when all I want to do is just get things to work on a stock car.

My uncle and i just got a beat up ranger with a head gasket leak and we completely took it apart only to find, rust on the cylinder wall. Only one though its we only wanna use it as a gambler car so were just gonna get rid of the rust and hope for the best

Just great to see and I didnt realise I had the right honing tool for an old Austin Sprite so I will follow your advice now, Thanks

Very useful! Respect!

If your cylinders are that bad, wouldn't you get it bored and honed anyhow if you were serious about saving an older engine?

This is great news for me Tony ,I'm always trying to save money ,and build it myself ,just want to get it running ,again ! I have to be honest though ,I had started using ball hones ,but will definitely go back to stone's, after watching this video ,thank you so much!