[67drake]

I’m rebuilding the engine in my ‘62 Mercury as my winter project. On inspection the engine is in surprisingly great shape. It was bored .030 over when my grandfather rebuilt it back in 1980. Machine shop verified that it only needs a hone done to the cylinders. Great.
I didn’t bother bringing the caps with because I didn’t think they were needed to just hone, so I dropped them off today.
Just curious why the caps are needed?
Thanks!

PS. Yeah, it’s not a Pontiac, but posting on the Ford forums is useless, it’s a vast wasteland!

[694.1]

The more that you can do to stress the block in the manor that it is stressed when bolted together, the more accurate the bores.
Just a thou or two makes for better ring sealing and that makes for mo horsepressure.
Some people even believe in heating up the block to simulate expansion.
Imagine honing the big end of a rod. As you torque them, they move. If you want the big end round, the bolts had better be tight.

[70gtojosh]

Depending on the type of honing machine your shop uses they may need the main caps to hold the block in position while they do the actual honing. I believe some machines use a bar that goes through the mains to hold it down

[Half-Inch Stud]

THIS ^^^^. The shop i used is still able to jerk each bore offline for best match to the sonogram

[Schurkey]

Originally Posted by 67drake

Machine shop verified that it only needs a hone done to the cylinders.

Define "hone".

If the cylinders are in such great shape, a dingleberry-brush "hone" should be good enough. They would not need the main caps for that.

If the thing is getting a rigid hone, they must be trying to correct...something. Beware of excess piston-to-bore clearance. Any chance they're using a torque plate?

What engine is this?

[67drake]

Originally Posted by Schurkey

Define "hone".

If the cylinders are in such great shape, a dingleberry-brush "hone" should be good enough. They would not need the main caps for that.

If the thing is getting a rigid hone, they must be trying to correct...something. Beware of excess piston-to-bore clearance. Any chance they're using a torque plate?

What engine is this?

Thanks guys.
I didn’t ask what type of hone. I assumed just a ball hone to put a crosshatch on it. They said nothing about having to correct anything. But with that type of hone I wouldn’t think main caps would be needed as a ball hone would just follow the shape of the cylinders. Guess I’ll be giving them a call Monday to get more info about it!
Maybe just for mounting in the machine as mentioned above.

[Will]

You can't put an accurate cross-hatch pattern in a bore with a dingle-ball hone. May not matter depending on type of rings used, but crosshatch pattern is important for best ring seal and a rigid hone is the only way I know of to get it done. Problem is it usually makes the cylinders a thou or two bigger which can be a problem for piston fitment.

[steve25]

A proper grit ball hone will not remove even .001" of Bore material if your using it right.

If 6 passes up and down a Bore with a ball hone can it get atleast the ring riding area of a bore to show decent crosshatch then you just plain need to overbore and hone the block again, or live with it!

[Will]

Originally Posted by steve25

A proper grit ball hone will not remove even .001" of Bore material if your using it right.

If 6 passes up and down a Bore with a ball hone can it get atleast the ring riding area of a bore to show decent crosshatch then you just plain need to overbore and hone the block again, or live with it!

Random though - If doing a dingle ball hone then you sure don't need the main caps, unless it's to hold the block in a fixture.

What rings would you recommend to work best with a ball honed cylinder?

[Schurkey]

Originally Posted by Will

What rings would you recommend to work best with a ball honed cylinder?

If the cylinder is getting nothing but a Flex-hone job, we have to assume that it's in otherwise good condition. What grit is the ball-hone?

Far as I'm concerned, it's not worth building if you're not using some sort of moly-faced ring package.

I've got a few dingleberry brushes; most of them inherited from folks who "got out" of the business, or quit doing hobby-work. The only one I've bought new was 320 grit. 240 is probably more common, and I'm told it's still suitable for Moly-faced rings.

I've taken David Vizard's advice, so I scrub a green Scotchbrite pad up and down the cylinder after honing. This supposedly reduces friction, and removes the last traces of torn metal from the boring/honing process.

[67drake]

The shop said they use a Sunnen SV10 hone machine. They need the caps to hold the block in place. They also mentioned it would be hit with a plateau brush after honing.
They said it would be honed to run Moly rings.

[STEELCITYFIREBIRD]

Sounds like your in good hands... curious what series/displacement Ford engine it is?

[67drake]

‘62 260 V8

[Schurkey]

Originally Posted by 67drake

The shop said they use a Sunnen SV10 hone machine. They need the caps to hold the block in place.

Rigid hone, then. Beware of excess piston-to-bore clearance.

Are they using a torque plate?

Originally Posted by 67drake

They also mentioned it would be hit with a plateau brush after honing.

That'll either be the Dingleberry brush we've been discussing, or one of the newer abrasive nylon brushes.

[gtofreek]

you need the caps on to mount the block in the cylinder hone. The hold down bar goes through the main housing bore. Without caps, there is nothing to hold the block in place.