Re: hone a small outboard
Mike, if your doing your 6hp, I figure you're doing a 1.94" bore. Make sure that the hone you're buying fits your engine. For little engines, I use a brake cylinder hone, which looks like a miniature version of the second hone. It's always worked very well for me.<br /><br />The shaft of the hone is flexible, so staying straight isn't really important. You want it as close as possible to square of course, but there's no sense going far inside the tolerances of the tool. You'll see what I mean when you've got it in hand.<br /><br />The main thing is, it's not a precision instrument, so don't try to bore out your engine with it. Just hone it enough to break the glaze, you're not looking to resize the bore at all and waste away that precious metal.<br /><br />Also, don't forget to break the edge around the exhaust and intake ports when you're done with a file or (carefully!) with a dremel. You don't want a chunk of that sharp edge snapping off or catching the edge of the ring. (though I doubt that's likely to happen with the circular ports.)<br /><br />Without honing the cylinders, the rings will practically never seat. You would probably be better off using the old rings, since they're the shape of the cylinder while the new ones are perfectly round.