[Tom Mobley]

gotta watch those rails, if the ring compressor comes up off the deck at all they will pop out.

Can you post a pic or link to a pic? Honing is not a very good solution, you would need a ridgid stone, the stuff gets all over everything, have to tear-down and re-clean, all that.

Any detail on the fingernail catching deal? Especially, can you determine if there's scratch *into* the wall or is there a ridge pushed up on one side of the scratch? If there's a ridge it has to come off, it'll wreck your rings and maybe the piston. If it's a carved out scratch you might get away with it.

What type of engine is this? stocker, race, somewhere in between?

 

[Tom Mobley]

looks like you can still see the hone marks under most of the scrape? where can you feel the scratch?

 

[Tom Mobley]

What Al said, thanks for the results.

Are you using a tapered sleeve ring compressor? Or some kind of one where you tighten up a band some way or the other? I recommend the tapered sleeve deal.