[V8] body parts anyone?, now overhaul

[NicolCS at aol.com]

I<snip>
n a message dated 5/26/2006 7:57:51 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
dsaad at icehouse.net writes:
I almost certainly want a set. If my motor has good bores, I would rather
re-ring it than put in another used block. The only issue left would be 
honing,
but I would gamble that the rings would seat properly, again given that the
bores were not too worn.
I am sure others in my situation would feel the same.
and someone else wrote:
I'd think just running a ball hone through the cylinders would be
plenty, assuming there's no visible chunks missing. <unsnip>

A ball hone won't provide the correct surface. It will leave a combination of 
silicon and aluminum at the surface.  What you have to do is a procedure that 
removes the aluminum from the surface, leaving silicon as the surface.  If 
you don't remove the aluminum at the cylinder wall , it will gall when the 
aluminum piston rubs it leading to a total melt-down.  (Think Chevy Vega).  In my 
experience with aluminum/silicon bores, the bore never wears unless there's a 
catastrophic event, such as coolant in the cylinders.  What wears are the 
piston ring lands.  With the rings flopping around, oil control and compression 
goes out the window.  A re-ring won't fix that.  The next issue is that German 
engines are set-up with very tight bore-to-piston clearances, usually around 
.001" +/-.0003.  While the bores usually don't wear much, the pistons do, another 
reason to lean towards new pistons.  
So: Silicon hone, replace rings, replace pistons (figure $100 each), probably 
at least $2000 to overhaul, or replace with good used.  The latter would be 
my choice.
Craig Nicol