TO HONE OR NOT TO HONE??

[two-stroke-brit]

Hi all, i have a project bike that i am rebuilding , and its low millage (3,960) and i had the crank rebuilt.
but i measured the bores and they are still well in tollerance and the pistons are tidy too,
the problem is it was missing a lot of critical parts ,stator,coils, iggy etc .
well i got a parts bike that has most of the missing parts
well i was going to sling it back together with new rings.
but should i hone it to help the rings bed in or is this an "old wives tale"
in the UK i think they use parrafin oil for honning but in the US i think its either mineral oils or kerosene.??
any help is always welcome
thanks mark

[H2RICK]

With new CHROME rings and an IRON liner, you should ALWAYS run a hone through the barrels. How MUCH of a honing you do depends on what it takes to break the glazed surface up. This is an "experienced eye" kind of thing and I know of no way to explain it satisfactorily in words.

Where some confusion about honing or not comes into play is that the later 550's (A's and B's) and, I believe, those years of 380's were supplied to the Euro/UK market with Nikasil coated cylinders and IRON rings. THOSE types of cylinders should NEVER be honed. When the rings are worn beyond spec you just install new rings, bolt everything back up and then go riding.

Yes, parafin is fine for honing but a recirculating parafin parts washer is best. It'll carry MOST of the cuttings away nicely.

After your cylinders are honed to your satisfaction, you MUST take some clean white cloths (old tee shirt material works nicely) moistened with some clean parafin and wipe out the barrels using a radial motion. Keep checking your cloth as you wipe so you can see when it stops turning black and stays white. That means you have ALL the cuttings out of the microscopic cross hatching on the surface of the barrel......and will keep that crud out of the rest of your engine, as well.

[two-stroke-brit]

thanks rick

[ja-moo]

Glaze breaking is a bit misunderstood. You do only hone iron liners, as was stated. But you are just doing a light scratching when glaze breaking, nottrying to remove material. It usually only takes 4 to 6 up/down passes to break the glaze. You do not "need" to hone until the cross-hatch looks perfect, as that is just increasing clearance. It just doesn't take a lot to roughen up the bore.

And I use use wd 40 or the like, as it really isn't a lubricant.

[two-stroke-brit]

thanks moo ,i just want to get it together so i can "fault find" the charging/iggy/carbs/oil pump etc , them when i am happy its stable it will be time for some porting/wossners and such, but trying to "walk before run" sota thing.
cheers mark