Q: Piston cylinder
I am replacing the piston rings, the cylinder is about 3.546 inches. What grit size do I need to hone the cylinder, and what should the gaps be on the compression rings?
My car has 160000 miles.
My car has an automatic transmission.
A tutorial on cylinder honing (and grit size recommendations) is at this link. For ring gap recommendations, please see this link or the Factory Service Manual for your vehicle. If you have not honed cylinders in an engine block before, and don’t intend to do it routinely thus developing the skill, it is not recommended that you do it at home. A professional machine shop is a much better choice. The final surface roughness and pattern of the honing is extremely critical. Cylinder out of round and taper limits on modern engines is as low as .0004 inches or less. If your cylinders are not as round as required, the rings won’t seal as well as they could. All the cylinders have to be thoroughly measured to determine what you have. If they are not round, the machine shop might be able to clean them up, otherwise your block can be bored .020 oversize which includes the honing finishing process. If you have further questions or concerns, do not hesitate to re-contact YourMechanic as we are always here to help you.
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