LT-1 cylinder honing
 

Posted this in the LT-1 forum and it got buried really quick
thought I'd try here.

Bought what was supposed to be a crate motor off a guy on Ebay. Recieved it and while motor looks to be never run, upon futher inspection there is some discoloration near the tops of bores like chamber burn etc... So it's been run. How much I dunno. Pistons look new though. Bottom end is very clean. Problem is though that motor sat for a long time almost 2 years in storage. There is some discoloration in the bores almost like a surfast rust. Now you can't feel it with fingers but it's there. Guy doing work on my car is very good(did my s/c'd Mustang) and thinks we should tear motor down and rehone the cylinder walls. He wanted me to check to see what grit to hone the walls with b/c he wasn't sure off hand as he said depending on the rings in the motor would determine how/what grit he is to hone the bores.

it's not a crate motor btw b/c when we popped off the oil pan there are no 4bolt mains. So now I don't really know wtf I have. It's a 97 motor from what we can tell. Madwolf from here referenced some #'s and thinks it's from a 97 firebird. But I musta wrote some #'s down wrong b/c some of the rest of the #'s don't match his database.

So now my project is now stalled again. I wish I would have never got this damm car or this damm motor! My wife is ready to kill me for all the damm $$$ I've spent and now I'm gonna have to spend more. Sooooooooooooooooo depressed.

And to top it all off the Cubs blew a 3-1 games lead and lost the NLCS

Your engine guy is right. You should really know what the rings are before you hone.

With all the discrepancies you mentioned, can you get your money back from the eBay seller? I'd try that first.

If not, I'd tear it down and measure everything. Before you do that though, measure the bores to see of they are stock and maybe just "deglazed" to appear new with new stock size pistons, or if they are .010, .020, or .030 over. With the way things went for the Cubs, I'm taking the pessimistic view and guessing new stock size pistons in a deglazed bore. That would account for the discoloration near the tops. That's the bad news.
The good news is they probably didn't mess up the block machining it.

My $.02

well the pistons are stock size, not over as there is no stamp on the tops indicating oversize. I think the conclusion my engine guy and I came to is this was a very LOW mile engine pull. The engine looks to be hardly run, but it has been run. And with sitting so long he wan't to rehone it.

Maybe I'll have to have him re-ring the pistons so he can properly hone it.

dammit this thing is a damm $$$ pit. I feel like just falling on my sword and selling the damm car, motor and all parts for 1/2 of what I payed, calling myself a damm moron and leaving this whole crap hobby and just becoming a damm hermit or something

cars=money but rings and a hone job is nothing, so your out $200 for rings and hone. Just look at the hole picture and compair it to the 200 you have to put into it, thats nothing when you have a $20,000+car.
When my car didnt run the greatest for a long time and I hear your point, who likes to put more money into a car that doesnt run. Let me say this in the end if everything works out its a blast! However when that day comes, for me atleast, theres nobody else left to race; either because others cars are broke down or your just too damn fast:)

true
I hope it's only that much $$$ and not alot more. I can only hope at this point when he takes motor apart the cranks, bearings etc.. are near new. I have put so much $$ into my heads, cam, lt's etc... that it's nearly broke me :(. I really didn't bank on this part

I may be throwing caution to the wind here but if you can't feel any thing it can't be that bad. I'd oil the piss out of it and run it.

Never time to do it right but alway time to do it over!