Anyone used the flex-hone?
Thoughts/comments?
I have honing stones but the flex-hone looks good and I'm considering buying one to try out.

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I used them on one engine and they worked. In my case I could not see a lot of difference in the hone scratches of a flexhone and the regular sort of hone. They always looked like a pile of candy on sticks to me.

Ball hone works well and is easier to use

Haha. Abrasive candy. Wouldn't taste good.

If you bought it to use as a glaze-breaker when doing a simple re-ring job then they are great. They will conform to uneven wear of cylinder walls giving you a nice surface for the new rings to seal against. Of course, success depends on the severity of wall wear.

They are fantastic as long as you have one that fits the approximate bore size for the engine.

One tip I will give - I dunno if you've ever see a honing machine at an engine machining/reconditioner workshop, but they rotate fairly slow and move up and down moderately fast. With the sort of rpm any hand held drill will make (even at their lowest activation point, they still do quite high rpms relatively speaking) you have to move the thing in and out extremely fast. I made the joke in another forum (where there's a bit more 'anything goes' rules as to vulgarity) and seriously, you have to move the thing in and out like watching an X-rated movie on fast forward. Otherwise the cross hatch pattern will be at too shallow of an angle.

You don't need to rip heaps out of it, just break up the glaze, so there's enough of a surface to help the rings bed in.

Other people might advise other stuff, I've personally had good results with using 50/50 mix of cheap engine oil and kerosene as the honing fluid lubricant. Obviously wash it out thoroughly with solvent, and after that, wash it out with hot soapy water and a nylon brush with stiff bristles. Solvent alone won't get the bits of debris out of the cross hatch pattern, and if you don't do the hot soapy water scrubbing (and repeat a few times) you'll still get it to run and bed in the rings, but you'll literally cut the ring life by 50% before it needs the next rebuild. After it is cleaned thoroughly and you can rub a clean white lint free cloth through the bore without it picking up any 'staining' only then is the job done. If it comes out dirty, repeat the scrubbing and hot soapy water.

Once it finally is all done, just spray it with wd40 and it won't corrode.

just while we are at it, i have a question. lets say i have A12 and A15, and want to hone them both, do i need to buy two sizes for each bore respectively? or one size fits all?

One size does not fit all. Use one that fits 73 to 76 mm and will work for both A12 and A15.

58custom - I was originally going to get the block re-bored a little larger. But since my bores are slightly glassy with no uneven wear it will just need a little clean up.

jmac - I was watching the you tube clip and my wife walked past and gave me a strange look! It does look look motor porn! ha-ha
Thanks for the tip with the 50/50 mix. I have used a light oil in the past with honing stones but I will give your suggestion a go.

Bakat - my A14 is spot on 76mm when I measured it. I was planning to get the 3 inch size on a 240 grit.

I'll let you know how it all goes.

Edit- for those that are interested, the retailer recommended the 180 grit!