AScholtes

For the typical DIY'er at home, a torque plate is not necessary, nor going to be useful. 99% of all the DIY'ers are not going to have more than a 3 stone hone tool and a torque plate isnt going to do you any good due to the flex and geometry that is allowed in the tool. With a 10 or 12 head commercial hone tool and boring/honing machine, yes, you will want to use a torque plate, but I can tell you that you arent going to be using a 10 or 12 head tool by hand or even in the shop drill press....

944Ross

I'm thinking no one at home is going to have the surface roughness gauge that appears to be essential in verifying the success of the final paste steps.

kobayashi

Jay - I agree with your statement that honing is not for the DIYers. I am more thinking about lapping the cylinders to increase the depth of the aluminum for increased oil/lubrication. It should not significantly change the cylinder diameter because the silica is not being removed.

It appears that the paste is not even needed when using the KS exposing stones. Regular honing oil can be used. I would just follow the recommended 30 second duration in the clockwise and then counter clockwise directions.

Mike C.

Good luck. You got bigger cojones than me...

Dare

Have you thought about how you're going to mount the stones? Seems like you could adapt one of the Lisle tools if you didn't want to buy the Sunnen hand tool.

Dare

For those interested, here's a video of the Alusil lapping process made by the guy who did my block.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ek5qv8Nmg0

genikz

My brother also has a rebuilt motor from John at Costa Mesa R&D. I would trust that dude with ANYTHING engine related.

I ended up there a couple times with him and John is my hero. I'm sure he's forgotten more about engines than I will every know...

944CS

If you want to hone your Alusil block at home with a 3 stone drill and re-use pistons, be my guest but the fact that this is being encouraged isn't right

944CS

and please nobody compare the fact that Jon didn't use a torque plate on the Mercedes V8 block to the inline 4 of the 944

SirLapsalot

Why's that?

AScholtes

I wasnt encouraging it by any means. The point i was making is that the average DIYer is not going to have more than that at their disposal. Also... I will point it out that a torque plate was not being used in the video as like I said earlier, it is not necessary for this process, boring yes, honing, no...

FRporscheman

Let me ask you this: If I have a bare block in the garage which is waiting for me to save money for the machinist to hone it, what do I have to lose by trying to hone it myself first? If it doesn't come out well, I can just proceed to take it to the machinist.

whalebird

^^^I tend to agree. I don't think you could do much damage. If you do it wrong, it will just go back to the way it was before you honed it, albeit prematurely. It's a no-brainer if you just want new rings to seat.

944CS

He wasn't using a torque plate on that block because it is a V8 block and a torque plate will not make a difference....on an inline block this is a different story.

944CS

What pistons are you going to use?