I purchased a 6.0 gen 3 and currently honing it for new rings. The pistons had alot of carbon build up on top and in the ring lands. It appeared the oil rings quite doing there job and was getting blow by. Surprisingly the pistons look good now after cleaning them with hardly any wear and the cylinders still had the original hatch markings. What I'm curious about is the slight wearing at the top and bottom of the cylinders. I guess I could call it a ridge but very slight. In fact there are two. Which seems strange. As if the both rings are wearing the cylinder. One right above the other. I've seen ridges on a SBC but never experienced a Gen 3 ridge. I do know the finish hone is a made with a fine grit to match my rings. I would assume the smoother finish would create a less abrupt ridge. I have been honing the cylinders and ever so slowly the markings are disappearing. I do understand that I can in no way do a perfect hone job by hand. A machine operated hone job surely gets it better. I have already went through the cylinders and removed most of the markings. I've still yet to finish up with the fine grit. Which should remove a little more. Has anyone ran an engine with slight wear markings in the cylinders and not have problems with ring seal and compression? Or do I just keep honing it until the markings disappear? And the next question would be, how much material is being removed by honing?

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You don't want to hone until the marks are gone. With a cheap hone you'll end up with a tapered bore. Even with a rigid hone where you can make the bores straight, the clearance will get excessive. The best you can do without a dial bore gauge (something to measure bore size, taper, and out of round) is to just break the glaze, and create a cross hatch. Excessive honing with a cheap (anything with springs) is only going to cause problems. The marks won't cause excessive leakage or wear as long as they're not excessive, which I doubt they are by the looks of it. Just make sure you put the pistons, and rods back in the same hole they came from.

 

Mnlx, Thanks. I guess the marks are more visual than physical. The stones in some spots of the valleys in the marks are being touched. Which is telling me they aren't very deep. I just don't know what depth is to deep. I was concerned about making an uneven cylinder with the hone. I started out with a 400 grit but was taking forever and moved to a 240 to get it going then finish it with the 400. Is this acceptable? In the past I have ran engines with far worse cylinders but on SBC's, and didn't notice any problems other than me knowing what the cylinders looked like. Would you call this a ridge or just wear. I cant even feel it with my nail going over it. Before I started honing I could see slight waves in the reflection and was prepared for what I was going to see when I started honing. The waves were smooth but still waves. I didn't know how that would affect the rings moving over them. I'm guessing that after honing, the rings will wear off some of the peaks during break in and won't be as bad.

 

400 works. Depending on ring type, 280-400 is what I'd finish with.