Brief Description: Cylinders removed and sent off for honing
All 6 cylinders and heads were removed today. The cylinder walls all had noticeable scoring but nothing near as bad as 5 and 6 from the factory. This is great news to me as that only means that a precision hone and quality piston and ring install will only mean a stronger running engine with far more reliability. I will also note that with the hotter plugs and lean mod I've done, each of the heads were very similar in cleanliness and color, with each of the valves showing no sign of being overheated or fatigued. The pistons themselves with also in pretty decent shape. I could tell my newest cylinder #5 hadn't had it's rings seated yet and most likely needed more time with mineral oil. I've noted that for the next round of breakin. Each cylinder was taken to Kennedy Performance, up here in Lexington, to be honed and cleaned up for the new pistons. Kennedy had an interesting opinion on the cross hatch pattern that UL uses and claims that the angle was too steep for proper oil retention. What they define as "too steep" wasn't explained but I gave them the conditions that this engine would be opperating in and they assured me they will be honed specifically to for my application and choice of pistons/rings. Before I left the front office I snagged a magazine where one of their engines, installed in a Corvette, pushed the vette to first place in the nationals last year. All the customers there assured me that I was in good hands. Things I like to hear :) The next 50 hrs will convince me either way.
