Whats the most an hone can take care of?

I have 2 scratches in 2 different cylinders there wick small and not deep if i run my finger up and down you wouldnt know they were there but if i run my nail across it gets caught. Can a hone fix this without over sizing?

One looks like a flaking type of thing.

and the other looks like a weld mark,very small ripples and very small and thin.

the motor ran fine in spite of all this i have another cylinder jug but it was seized from sitting and now un-seized if i cant fix this one then ill pull that one and see whats up.I hope the other one is good with a good hone

 

A hone job can take out very small surface scratches but it sounds like yours may be deeper than that. Get the bores checked with a bore gauge. Your local machine shop should have one. If its not tapered they might be able to hone it enough to be useable. If not you might have to go oversize or find another set of cylinders. Good luck.

 

Thanks and WOW

you have alot of awsome xj's i wish i had all those bad boys..

 

Tyler,
Thanks
I'm sure you are having fun with your bike. I remember mine. Kept me busy and out of trouble.

You have no idea what a pain it is to keep all of these running. Its always something. I love these bikes so much I have to keep em runnin. If you ever get to Minnesota stop in and check them out. Good luck with yours.

 

a perfect cylinder starting out has no problems..... if that scratch crosses the path of the compression stroke, where the top of the scratch and the bottom are above and below the ring...its going to cause you lost compression on every stroke. fix it.

 

without being there in person to see and feel the scratch, its hard to say if a hone will fix it or not. it wouldnt hurt to hone the cylinder (not too much) and see what happens. after honing you will need new rings.

if you have another jug(s) then why not run your engine until you have the money to bore the spare and get some oversized (hi compression...?!) pistons. just a thought.

 

The everyday hone that you typically buy at your local parts store is really not a hone. It was intended to be used as a glaze breaker. If you use one to begin taking out a healthy scratch you will wind up with cylinder walls that are out-of-round and tapered to some degree.
A true hone has guides to hold it true in addition to the cutting stones that allow it to cut more accurately. By trying to use one of the "hones" to dress up imperfections in your cylinder walls you will probably do more damage than good and cause more of a compression leak that the scratch would cause.
Did the engine have any broken rings or pistons? Something had to cause the scratch. The next oversize ring available for this bike is .25mm. This is equal to approximately .010". You can't successfully hone out the cylinder walls with a glaze breaker to be able to use a .25 piston and ring. It will need to be done by a machine shop to make the walls accurate.
Some people go crazy with one of these "hones" and it is disputable at how much good it really does. I have known of a lot of people that have use the glaze breakers trying to hone the cylinder walls and about the only thing that get out of it is poor oil control and less compression. This is not to say that the rings won't eventually seat to the wall, but they will have to "wear" the wall smooth again to take out the minor scratches left by the glaze breaker. Trust me, they are indeed scratches. By the time the rings wear to seat in the walls, it takes a good bit of the ring life out of it. In the older days, most of the aftermarket rings were made of cast iron and would wear quickly. Then came along the Chrome Moly rings which would last longer because of the hardness but would take longer to seat.
It may be to your advantage to use a very fine grit sand paper to try and de-burr the scratch. The again, a lot of people think it is absolutely necessary to hone the cylinder walls.
Good luck with what ever you do.

Ride safely,

Ed

 

ive noticed nobody bids on xj jugs when theyre on ebay. Keep your eyes open and you could get on soon for >50 with shipping.