Technical Dingle ball honing (oh no not again )

I am looking to buy a dingle ball hone , I am in the UK and found a supplier over here but a bit stuck on which to purchase as they offer different grades , Silicon Carbide / Aluminium oxide /Boron carbide / Levigated alumina , then grit grades from 20 to 800
Basically my block was bored and did little use before damaging a piston and bending a rod , it has been lying around for a few years so just want to give bores a clean and light hone to bed in new rings
any advise welcome

Thanks
Dave

 

Dave, there are several threads related to your question here on the HAMB. I just typed in "honing cylinders" in the search bar and there were your answers. Hope this helps.

 

You are not going to get a decent cross-hatch with a dingleberry hone. You just may be best off with some crocus cloth by hand using a light oil.

 

Always worked fine for me , moly rings seat immediately .

 

Not sure a ball flex hone is your best bet as you said the engine damaged a piston shortly after assembly. Do you know why? Probably piston clearance? In any case I would want to use a fixed hone that can cut a round hole without taper and recheck all piston clearances. A flex hone will not do that.

 

The engine was a marine , it had been rebuilt and run for only a short time when it sucked water through the card and hydraulic breaking off one long skirt off a piston and putting slight twist in a rod , everything else in the engine is undamaged , got a new rod to match others and a new set of pistons and rings , I have a new 3 leg honing tool i could use just think i will get better results with ball type hone

 

Damnit! I wish I had known this before the last dozen or more engines I’ve used them on…

 

Ball hones work better than the old 3 bar hones, and do a better job of achieving the 45 degree crosshatch recommended by ring suppliers. Which grit is up to the ring supplier, and most state the grit on their packages. I'd never use finer than 400 grit, as it will be too smooth and not get good ring breakin.
Run the drill at around 600 rpm's and up and down as fast as your arms can handle to get a good pattern.
You need to soak the hone in oil prior to using it the first time as the balls actually soak up oil, and if only oiling the cylinder they'll draw up that oil. Before starting oil the cylinder liberally, and add oil as it disappears.
Which material I can't say. I've never found a bunch of choices myself, and mine are too old to recall. Size is generally 1/8" over bore size though, so be sure to not go too big and have it cut too aggressively.

 

I used a 240 grit hone on my 5.0 motor. About 50 passes per cylinder with the last 10 passes being fairly fast. Left a good 45* crosshatch.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B085H8R5T8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s02?ie=UTF8&th=1

For lubrication I used a 1 gallon milk jug filled with 30wt oil and dipped the ball hone in that every couple of passes. Oh yeah.....it makes a mess!

 

Each of the abrasive materials listed has a different hardness.

A light cross-hatch hone for cylinder walls in an Iron block, or a block with Iron liners should be done with something like Aluminum oxide.

Abrasives that are of the carbide variety will remove more material than you likely want to remove.

Aluminum oxide is less aggressive, and will allow you to "sneak up" on what you want, without risk of overshooting it.

400-grit, and 30W oil is where it's at.

 

Just hone it with your three stone hone (with the right grit for a proper cross hatch) and done.
You are just going to freshen up the surfaces and not actually take any metal off anyhow and the stones work better to handle any imperfections.
Here in the states a lot of us call the dingle ball hones "glaze breakers" Many of use them to knock the glaze off the cylinder walls of a block that we are just going to do a quick cast iron ring and bearing job on and expect to get another 70K miles out of it.

 

I dingle-balled my block. Worked great. Used trans fluid for lube. Yes it makes a mess

I was told to use the fewest number of strokes possible ... just enough to get an acceptable surface.

It has been several years since I did the dingle-ball dance (the engine is still running in my daily and has 10's of thousands of miles on it) but I personally think that 50 strokes sounds like an excessive amount.

Unfortunately I have no idea what grit my stones are

I used a 1/2" electric drill and, due the the drag, wasn't able to maintain a good, steady speed using the variable speed dial on the trigger so I just kept pumping the trigger to keep the unit spinning without it going to fast or causing it to stop.

 

Maybe just a lingering, faulty memory, but . . .

Going back more than several years ago I remember being advised to not use petroleum oils for honing or glaze breaking. The oil does indeed get absorbed into the stones and attacked or softened the bonding material that held the abrasives. With enough age and use this shortened the life of the stones.

The recommendation was to use a vegetable based or cooking oil (think Wesson Oil) which still provided lubrication but did not affect the bonding material of the stones. I don't recall that it was even necessary to clean the stones for storage afterwards.

Or am I the only one who remembers hearing of this?

 

I don't recall ever hearing that about the oil.

240 grit works well for me using motor oil. It's really important to clean the bores afterwards. Those things leave a lot of very fine grit behind.

 

I use vegetable oil for honing. The stones don't seem to load up as much. Never heard about the adhesion issue on the carrier.

 

I have my grandfathers honing equipment.

It has only been used with motor oil, since before I was born.

 

Silicon carbide abrasives are normally used for grinding or honing cast iron. What you use for grinding or honing a particular material is somewhat counterintuitive. Superabrasives aside, softer and more easily fractured abrasives like aluminum oxide are used on harder materials like steel or hardened iron while harder ones like silicon carbide are used on softer materials like cast iron or even aluminum

 

I use carbide abrasives when smoothing cast Iron blocks and heads,when I want to remove a lot of material, quickly.

When I use Aluminum oxide, the abrasives last 10% of the time.

Same abrasive vendor.

All of my flex hones (ball) are Aluminum oxide.

 

And it wouldn't be hard to imagine that the materials used in making these stones has changed and improved over the years.

 

My new stuff (bought last year) is also Aluminum oxide for honing cylinders.

 

Or olive oil, or virgin olive oil, or... if you can't find a virgin.....KY Jelly will work!

 

Your honing a different hole with that stuff , you perv

 

I use wd40 while honing.

 

Me too Lane ,,,,,
I know the experts say not to use it while honing .
But,,,it’s always done a great job for me !

I guess I’m just a renegade !
Lol .

Tommy

Oh yeah,,,,,,,,Merry Christmas everyone !

 

We use dingle berry , Christmas tree , ball homes at work on engines and hydraulic cylinders .

much , much easier to get a good finish and esier to use in a drill for a novice .

I do have a nice self Centering fixed hone I used at times when I’m feeling fancy .

the ball hone works great . I have one on a 6’ rod for honing really long hydraulic cylinders .works very well .

and as far as lubricant, engine oil , hydraulic oil , atf , penetrant , chain lube .

the ball hones at work get stored in a piece of angle iron bolted to the wall ( I have a few different sizes and lengths). Stored upright and covered with a bag to keep dust and dirt off them . And basically whatever lube is in the assembly I’m honing I use that fluid on the ball hone , never had an issue .

 

I’d rather use a dingle berry hone on a non machined cylinder, than a rigid hone. But the engine the OP is talking about, probably doesn’t have a ring groove or taper after the rebuild.
I think it was asked, but is the cylinder gouged , etc?

Edit: had to fix my auto corrects.

 

I was taught to use ATF when honing and I’ve always had good success with it.

 

Hmmm…I’d never heard anyone say it was “wrong”. Anytime something comes out of the hot tank I rinse it with hot water and spray it down with WD40 to prevent flash rust.

 

240 grit and ATF over here, you're going to wash the bores out anyway with hot soapy water then WD40, correct? Main worry is if the bores aren't round to begin with might just make it worse. 3 x-y bore measurements each cylinder Top halfway down and bottom of stroke

 

Like the guy at the motel desk, ask's the lady to disable the porn in his room. She says, we only have regular porn you sick bastard.