what's the difference in honing and deglazing? Do they both not use the same tool?

 

Honing is usually done by a dedicated machine with a head that has abrasive stones attached to it. It is very accurate. This is different from boring which uses a cutting tool to enlarge the bore. Honing is always done after boring to create the proper surface finish. The surface finish requirements vary depending on the type of rings you are using.

Deglazing uses a tool which looks like a bottle brush (called a dingle-ball hone) and all it does is rough up the surface of a cylinder wall which is already the correct diameter. Deglazing is done when you are replacing the piston rings but are not boring and honing the cylinders oversized.

 

Deglazing is the least aggressive only removing the glassy look to used cylinder wall that still have a good crosshatch. Deglazing is usually done with a ball hone. More aggresive are the stone hones that actually produce a crosshatch themselves. Used in a more well worn cylinder wall or for exacting PW clearances.

 

Ok thank you guys sooo much, I just pulled my ls block and decided to deglaze the walls since it feels really smooth (around 100k miles on motor). Thanks for clearing up the difference.

 

Thats probably fine but you can't 'feel' .002" wear, which definately would causing piston ring sealing issues. They really should be measured.

 

any suggestions on where to find an appropriately sized bottle brush hone?

i've come across 76mm tools while searching the web. is this ok for deglazing a 75mm bore?

 

Probably a good idea. The cross hatch pattern on the cylinder walls is there to catch and keep oil in the pattern to ensure good lubrication.