Single cylinder glaze honing?

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nm9stheham

nm9stheham

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I have pulled the heads of a small block in the car and the cylinders and bottom end in general are in very good condtion with no ring ridge and cross-hatching still visible. I notice that bore #8 is a bit glazed and want to break the glaze with the bottom end still assembled. Long in the past I have done this with a piece of 220 wet-or-dry moving around in an angular pattern (not sure it did any good but made me feel better!), but figure there may be a better way. Has anyone ever used any sort of glaze-breaker/hone with the pistons still in? Any other clever ways to do this? Tnx in advance...
 
I'd just spray it out with gumout and suck the fluid out with a shop vac or good clean rag

make sure and reoil the cylinders.

I wouldn't want the abrasive material from sandpaper or a hone in the cylinders.

Otherwise I would pull the short block down , ball hone it and stuff in new rings and probably rod bearing
 
If you can see the bores, you are only 2 nuts away from pulling the slug and dingle balling it the correct way unless you got pan removal issues.
 
I agree to remove the pistons and ball hone the cylinder.

It's not worth getting all of that crap stuck in your rings. Easier to remove the piston, hone it, clean it, then re-oil it and install the pistons again.
 
There is no way I would hone a cylinder in the car, way too much abrasive material left behind, that you will not be able to get it clean.
You would be doing the engine more harm than good.
 
Thanks for all the comments guys; all good points. The hone for sure sounds like a bad idea, and even thougth 3M wet-or-dry retains the abrasive pretty well, there is always some residual. Considering that the engine burns about 1/2 qt of 10W30 Mobil 1 per 6-8k miles, it is not hurting for the oil rings sealing. So, I'll probably just leave it be for that reason. Pan is a bit hard to do.

Incidentally, the plug shows a bit of oil in that one cylinder, but we are finding that it seems to be coming via the intake; there is a lot oil residual goo in the intake and it is the most in that cylinder (#8) with the 2nd most in #7, also in the rear. I don't think the vehicle ever has had the PCV serviced. So, again, not likely it is this cylinder not sealing reasonably well.

Interesting thing....this one cylinder is the one where we suspect has had coolant seeping into it in small amounts for some time, and it is the one that is somewhat glazed. Perhaps tiny amounts of rust material have formed that allowed the rings/piston to finely hone the cylinder down to a semi-glazed condition.....t'would be interesting to know.....
 
nm9stheham said:
Interesting thing....this one cylinder is the one where we suspect has had coolant seeping into it in small amounts for some time, and it is the one that is somewhat glazed. Perhaps tiny amounts of rust material have formed that allowed the rings/piston to finely hone the cylinder down to a semi-glazed condition.....t'would be interesting to know.....
Click to expand...


I would bet that the leaking coolant into that cylinder washed the oil off the walls and caused it to wear more. Ie. glazing.

I would make sure to fix the coolant leak to keep it from getting worse.



Why not get a 4" wire wheel on a drill and clean up the cylinder as good as you can with it? I've don this with many engines that have sat open with the head off and got some surface rust on the bores. . Then put the piston at TDC and clean it with rags, then compressed air until all is clean if you don't want to pull it.

Or use some of the "Scotch Brite pads" to clean up the surface as they don't have any abrasive grit to fall off and get into the cylinder.
 
The heads are off to fix the coolant seepage; caused by plugged rad, a slight overheat, and 1 or both heads warped a bit. Heads are in the shop right now.

Hmm, I'll try looking at some scotchbrite. I assume they do have abrasive grit in them?? I need to research that.

Thanks!
 
Here's what I'm referring to with the Scotch Brite pads. They have different "abrasive" levels. I even had a rep bring me some samples to use to remove knicks off of recycled pistons. The rep brought me some that would take the knick down without removing any "base" metal, just the knick that was sticking up. It worked great.

I would check a home improvement store, auto body supply store.

View attachment Scotch Brite A01 B.jpg
 
I read up about the material and it has abrasive embedded in it that gets exposed as the pad wears. And if the glaze gets removed, then there has to be some small amount of metal removed. I think I will try this on my next 'rough' build....but not this time. Tnx!
 
The problem with honing while the engine is together is two fold. First, as everyone has said, you have to worry about abrasive material getting into the engine. No way could you keep it all out.

Secondly, lets say you did get every single bit out. Now, what do you have? You have one cylinder with the glaze broken and new cross hatch on it. So, what's the problem with that? Those rings on that piston in that cylinder are worn to match that cylinder the way it is now, not like it will be when you are done honing it. Honing cylinders should only be done when new rings are to be installed, so that they can all wear into the cylinder they are in. If you hone the cylinder and leave the old rings in, you will very likely accelerate the wear of those rings very quickly.
 
Very good point, Triple R. Thanks for the input; we just decided not to do it for a variety of reasons, like it is likley that the ring groove wear is more of an issue than this. You just put another nail in the coffin of the thought.
 
nm9stheham said:
Incidentally, the plug shows a bit of oil in that one cylinder, but we are finding that it seems to be coming via the intake; there is a lot oil residual goo in the intake and it is the most in that cylinder (#8) with the 2nd most in #7, also in the rear. I don't think the vehicle ever has had the PCV serviced. So, again, not likely it is this cylinder not sealing reasonably well.
Click to expand...

That oil accumulation on one side of the plug is definately a sign of your oil consumption coming from a valve guide, intake gst, or as you suggest a PCV,,

If you replace the guide seals, and service the PCV,, check the plugs in 5k mi.. I bet there's little oil consumption on that plug..

If you scrape the pistons,, be sure to get every bit of that carbon outta the space between piston and wall,, cuz the first coupla times those cyls fire,, the explosion blows all that crap behind the rings, often adding to/creating a "sticking ring" condition..

hope it helps
 
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