Honed cylinders or mirror finish - which is better?

I suggest a Part 2, where you build 2 complete engines, identical except for the bore finish. Then put them on a DYNO to test power, compression, oil consumption, etc.

Back in the 80s, I rebuilt an engine in the parking lot. I hand honed my cylinders not knowing what I was doing. When I first started driving after the "rebuild", the engine was really down on power. It took about 1000 miles for the piston rings to seat and the further I drove, the power slowly increased.

Well what i can remember from my engineering courses, honing provides tiny pockets for oil to sit, reducing wear and blow by.

When i was young i used to hear guys talk about ' chrome plated rings ' taking a long time to ' break in '. I thought that sounded like it had to wear through the chrome plating and sounded dumb like it defeated the whole purpose of the chrome. I then had a 350 chevy short block to rebuild and miked it all out. It had mirror finish cylinders with almost zero wear so i thought i would try something. I installed chrome plated rings without touching the cylinder finish. When i had 7 pistons in i could still turn it over by hand on the crank weights. I didnt need a wrench until i had all 8 installed. I put it all together and it ran clean and fine right from the start. It ran well and at about 20,000 miles i drove it across country getting terrific gas mileage.

What I loved most was the guy driving circles in the middle of the track

Generally speaking for minimizing friction, thick oil likes rough surfaces. And thin oil likes smooth surfaces.

Honed of course. The term deglaze the cylinders isn't around because shiny is better.

the honed cylinders had less deposits on the valve than the polished cylinders. i was aware that you want to hone cylinders before installing new rings for best results, but it's nice to see it confirmed.

Honed cylenders are for holding oil in the scratches. Smooth cylenders are for o rings.

My understanding is that the honing serves 2 major purposes: 1) it traps oil against the cylinder walls for lubrication. The oil also helps the rings seal. 2) it helps the rings wear in when the engine is new (or fresh rebuild) and helps them seal better. A mirror finish would be better with a soft o-ring because the texture of the honing will shred the o-ring.

Honed of course. The rings will seat and seal much better in a honed cylinder.

Lada has to love Garage 54, the way they show what Lada's cars are capable of.

The two angle cross hatch pattern has two purposes. The first is to provide lubrication to the rings. And the steeper angle causes the rings to rotate to keep the cylinder wearing evenly preventing premature wear.

Remove cylinder glazing, to add crosshatch, so rings can seat to the walls. Proven time and again.

Your videos keep getting better and better. Thanks for your interesting ideas.

I really like the off the wall ideas being put to test from this group!! Seem some stuff that you'd never think would work actually work! I bet this group can actually fix anything that thrown at them.

I swear these guys can read minds... I was wondering exactly this yesterday while thinking about sleeveless alloy engines (like Briggs and Stratton Koolbore) requiring a mirror finish in order to not eat themselves to death. I think it's a 2 stroke trait though, whereas a 4 stroke requires the honing to hold oil on the walls.

great videos. just founds your channel, watched a couple videos. I like your style. Thorough, but not repetitive. great balance. nice work.

I guess it does matter on what type of rings you're using . But the 22 degrees (roughly) is important for proper oiling . But a standard nodular quick seater ring will have a hard time getting a seat on a polished wall texture, where as a chrome ring will be more at home with a polished surface . I figured 1 and three would have a better time with oil control . I built a lot of engines over the years though . Good work guys . :)

This is what I am talking about. Best channel for anything you can think of.