Piston in honing - advice before I start?

[sproutroot]

I honed my cylinders when I pulled my heads, and I'd do it again. I think people are making a way bigger deal out of a ball hone than is warranted. I'll say that it's absolutely better to do it with the cases split and whatnot, but you shouldn't be worried about making ridges, or putting tolerances out of spec unless you're WAY overdoing it with the hone. I know now that I probably "overdid" my hone job, but it's still perfectly fine. Ideally, 5 seconds of high rpm honing per cylinder is plenty (down, up, down, up). More than that and the hone just isn't doing much for you. I found that cleaning up afterwards was straightforward -albeit meticulous. HOT soapy water, rinse, then acetone, followed by compressed air, and finish with MMO. Make sure you have great light, and great eyes for cylinder cleaning.