wrote in message
ups.com...
| I always lightly honed the cylinders with a fine stone. Are you saying
| not to do this?
| The worry here is the rings wont seat properly and then the engine will
| use too much oil.
| What I have also found is engines that are well maintained on oil
| today, never seem to have a ridge.
| And I have also noticed the cylinders look very good. I resealed the
| heads on my 1993 350 with 170000 miles and there was no ridge, the
| cross marks were still there.
| I also like to use synthetic oil, but I think the oils today are really
| much better.

I tore down an engine that I rebuilt myself over 160,000 miles prior.
NO ridge. Bearings looked awesome as well. Kendall 20W-50 changed
regularly and cleaned by Wix filters. Not my point, though.

I looked for this article again and couldn't find it. The points made
were is that if the bore isn't square when the old pistons come out, the
rings will show it when you shove them in and check for gaps. Unless sludge
trapped the rings in place, not allowing them to rotate, the bores where the
rings will be will most likely already round enough for the rings to do
their jobs again. You can hone them round if needed, but don't leave
crosshatch behind. That crosshatch will get ground off by the rings. That
crosshatch you just took off is now grit in your engine, and very fine grit
indeed. All that effort to get the engine spotless before assembly and you
just went and tossed in a pinch of iron dust, where it will be circulated
among softer bearings, wearing everything else out along the way. Guess
what? 500 miles later, after the rings are "seated," the cylinders are
polished nice and shiny, just like you wanted to avoid! Skip the whole
mess. Seen a 500 mile oil change on a new car lately? Don't need to,
because the finish on the walls is very specific and extremely fine. Rings
don't need to seat anymore because they're made a whole lot better than they
used to be as well.

I reread it a few times because I was naturally skeptical. It all made
perfect sense, though, in a much better manner than I tried.