[w72transam]

I have a 1976 GP I want to sell. It currently has a 1971 400 in it that I want to keep but I have a free 350P I was hoping to re-ring just to get something in the car so I can sell it.It was originally a 350 2bbl anyways.The 350 has a decent ridge and some rust pitting in the cylinders and should be bored but not going to spend that kind of money on it.Can you get away with ball honing and ringing a cylinder like that and not have it burn too much oil.Otherwise I can get a good running used 1971 350 from a junk yard but they want $450 for it and a re-ring kit from Northern auto parts is about $200.

[wheneaglesfly]

It likely won't work out very well ball honing .
If you feel a wear ridge at the top of the cylinder then there is likely .005-.009" bore wear present.
If you try ball honing then use plain cast iron piston rings.
They seat fast.
But the bores will continue to wear.
Used to call plain cast iron rings BORE EATERS.
But they get the engine running again for a while.

[Schurkey]

Be lucky if the ridge doesn't break the top rings.

You know it needs to be bored. So bore it.

[steve25]

I did this ages ago to sell a car ( Buick ) If you remove the Ridge and ball hone it , rering and add a can of a Restore the motor will run ok to sell it, but the constant expansion and contraction of the rings due to verticle bore taper will fatigue them and will loose there tension and seal in less than 2000 to 3000 miles depending on the rpm so sell if fast!

[wheneaglesfly]

It was done this way Hundreds of thousands of times.
Backyard engine rebuilds with a ball hone.
Some I have seen lasted for several years driving.

[Boostedbird]

My buddy had a 400" Pontiac with the pistons stuck in the bores. He beat the pistons out, honed the cylinders with PB Blaster until the rust was gone, and put different pistons with new rings in it. We beat the snot out of that engine for about 4 years! Lol!

[track73]

"Back in the day" .005 taper would be the absolute max to re-ring. I don't know if you can still get Continental rings but that's what were used for cylinders that were real bad. I just did a 400 with about .003 taper. I ridge reamed it, ball honed and put in Hastings cast iron rings. It ran great. No smoke or blow by.

[Blued and Painted]

Iv'e successfully installed many sets of the hasting cast iron rings in marginal bores. I start with a fresh set of honing stones and knock down the highest arias. I like using ATF for cutting fluid. Works a lot slower than Cool Tool, WD, or other cutting fluids. Dont get carried away and over bore the cylinder. Finishing up with a ball hone to make it pretty. Again, don't get carried away. Once finished, a good 60 degree crosshatch pattern should be present. Hone at a medium to low speed with a fairly quick in and out motion. Thoroughly clean the bore more than once. Double check the ring end gap and happy motoring.

If the crankshaft will be reused with new bearings, odds of rings striking the smoothed out ridge are low. A new or re-ground crankshaft could be a different story.

[GRX]

Agree with others. While not ideal, you can get away with a lot doing a ball hone & re-ring. Heck. Back in the old days it was pretty common to knurl the piston skirts. Not a bad idea using a set of machinist stones on the top ring to chamfer the leading edge a bit.

[77 TRASHCAN]

My car currently has a '70 350 in it. I took the sharpness off the ridge w/ a cartridge roll, ball honed cylinders.
I asked my engine builder about his choice of rings. He told me to NEVER use iron rings for anything! I used the standard bore Sealed Power Moly ring set. The engine has about 30,000 on it since 1991, ring seal is excellent.
There's a lot of ways to do things, most folks here know how to do things the absolute best and proper way (yes, it needs to be bored!). Knurling piston skirts and valve guides are old times remedies that may not be long engine life improvements, but they can get you down the road, in a better way, for just a few dollars spent.
It's hard for most of us to imagine how I things were in the 40's, 50's and 60's. Man, money was tight, and little of it was to be had!

This 350 you have might be able to be "rebuilt", you'll need to tear it down first to see. I put new (standard) bearings in mine, after having the crank checked and polished. I put a Sealed Power CS641 (066 duplicate) in it, Teflon guide seals, cam bearings, new push rods, oil pump (3/4 pickup tube pump), and a gasket set.
Still spent some $$$ but, not that bad..