I am replacing my pistons in my 454 .040 over with hypers.The cyl's check out good but I need to break the glaze with a ball hone.What grit should be used with moly rings?Thanks

400 or finer is the conventional wisdom, but before that was available I had good success on many engines using a 360 I got off a tool truck.

What I think is even more important is using the correct honing oil and enough of it. See if your machine shop will sell you a few quarts of actual honing oil and use plenty of it.

How do you tell when the the clyinder is done?Do you hone till all the glaze is gone and have a good crosshatch pattern?I read that moly rings prefer a slight smother suface than stock rings.
Thanks Guys

How do you tell when the the clyinder is done?Do you hone till all the glaze is gone and have a good crosshatch pattern?I read that moly rings prefer a slight smother suface than stock rings.
Thanks Guys
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A ballhone does not cut like conventional stones. You don't need to use 400 grit with them,

Just for info, we do not actually finish hone with 400 stones. We finish the last half thou to size with 280 stones & "plateau" with 3 or 4 strokes with 400 stones with very light pressure.

They do make a 320 or 360, I forget which & it will work just fine. Even 220 will be fine with a ballhone.

Honing oil, light like 10wt oil or even WD 40 works fine for a lubricant.
You need to run the drill fairly slowly to keep a decent crosshatch angle.

It is done when you have a consistent crosshatch looking cylinder that is kind of a matte finish.

Clean the crap out of it with soap & water when you are done & spray & wipe with WD40 or light oil or it will rust instantly as you dry it.

Don't worry about "over-honing", you can spend all day in one cylinder & you ain't gonna measure the amount of material you removed with a ballhone :D

Do the initial cleanup with automatic transmission fluid. It has a high detergent content and will loosen and remove most all of the residue from the stones. Follow up with soap and water and immediately coat with engine oil.

Make absolutely sure none of the runoff gets into the crankshaft oil passages. As you hone, you'll be creating a substance that's like lapping compound as the oil and the grit from the stone mix together. It tends to run down the cylinder walls and can be slung onto the bearing saddles. Make sure you clean that area as well, and check the oil passages for any contamination.

The best way is to clean the entire block in a vat when you're finished but face it, we live in the real world. Just take extra care and do a good job of cleaning up.

Would it be possible to bolt on a pair of junk heads and hone the bores from the bottom up? Kind of like a ghetto torque plate? Or would it cause a problem with not being able to go deep enough with the ballhone because the head is on there?

Would it be possible to bolt on a pair of junk heads and hone the bores from the bottom up? Kind of like a ghetto torque plate? Or would it cause a problem with not being able to go deep enough with the ballhone because the head is on there?

It would not work as you couldn't get to the top of the bore
Also, a torque plate is a complete waste of time with a ballhone.
You are not going to remove any measurable material or change the cylinder geometry with a ballhone so a torque plate does nothing.

Same applies for the generic spring loaded hones. From sitting, my block had just the slightest hint of surface rust. Gave each cylinder about 30 seconds with a 320 stone, WD40 and light pressure just to clean the surface.

It would not work as you couldn't get to the top of the bore
Also, a torque plate is a complete waste of time with a ballhone.
You are not going to remove any measurable material or change the cylinder geometry with a ballhone so a torque plate does nothing.

I figured the first part, not reaching the top, but I never new about the ballhone not taking off much material. Thanks!

I was just asking because my 350 block was torque plate honed when it was rebuilt, but I was thinking of taking out the rebuilder pistons and putting in some forged ones. Block has less than 5k miles on it and its been run on Mobil1 since about 500mi., I don't think it would need to get taken to .040 but it probably will need to be honed.