"Bob Chilcoat" wrote in message
...
SNIP
| The last engine I did (79 Honda Civic CVCC) had over 0.040 taper (!) but I
| was just interested in getting it to pass inspection so that I could sell
it
| as a car, rather than scrap. I just broke the glaze on the cylinders and
| put the new rings in without touching the taper. Worked fine, passed
| inspection, didn't smoke. I told the guy that bought it that it was an
old
| engine, and would probably need a rebuild soon. I figure the $300 in
parts
| enabled me to get $800 for the car instead of $50 for scrap, so I was
money
| ahead. Boring out the cylinders would have cost more than the car was
| worth. I wonder how many miles the buyer got before the "ring job" died.
| My guess is he got well over $800 worth of driving out of the car.
|
| --
| Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)

There is a new bit of thinking when it comes to refitting rings onto
your car. That is, since the ring eventually makes the cylinder walls
glaze/polish within a few hundred miles, why have the rings grind away at
the rough cylinder walls and introduce the metal into your oiling system?
Dust polish them as fine as you can and call it good. If it's clean and
round, the rings will seal up just fine, with lots less "break in" time.
New engines aren't made with crosshatch anymore for similar reasons. One of
the engines I did that way just went into service and its runs just fine,
even though I haven't done a compression test to it since it drove away.
I came across it on the web while looking for the right oil to cleanup
the bores in a couple engines I was working on. Very interesting, and the
reasoning was sound.