Sunnen engine honing 1949

[smclendon]

I still have that exact Sunnen hone set up. My grandfather bought it years ago. They honed model T blocks and used lard instead of any oil. I used it in the 70's to hone the block for my E/MP 1959 Corvette we drag raced with.

[Kingbee]

I still have that exact Sunnen hone set up. My grandfather bought it years ago. They honed model T blocks and used lard instead of any oil. I used it in the 70's to hone the block for my E/MP 1959 Corvette we drag raced with.

Cool story! When you you said E/MP Corvette it made me think of the "Pizza Man" E/MP Vette that ran out of Sioux Falls SD back in the day.

[Dave Koehler]

I still hone by hand - I have noticed my bores have less taper and out of round than the "proper" machines.

You can be proud of the accuracy you have learned to achieve while hand honing.

However, there's no need to accept crap work from job shops. Forty years ago, the base model Rottler and Sunnen power stroke machines would finish a round straight bore. If you're getting back junk, it's because the operator isn't taking care of his stones, coolant, or he's pushing too fast and hard. Don't pay for work which does not meet your standards.

Big yup. The only good thing about hand honing is that I learned how metal breathes / moves and I gained the arms of a weight lifter. Don't miss it.
I have often said those that learned how to make straight holes out of crap with an AN hand hone could produce miracles with a CK machine.
Those that can't are...well.......

[smclendon]

Kingbee, there is a picture in the December 1973 Car Craft magazine showing us honing a block with that hone.

[machine shop tom]

Anyone who's hand-honed a block hopes never to have to do it again. Yes, it can produce really good results, but it's really hard work.

I hand-honed for over 30 years. Yet my arms are not like Popeye's.

[benno318]

Anyone who's hand-honed a block hopes never to have to do it again. Yes, it can produce really good results, but it's really hard work.

I hand-honed for over 30 years. Yet my arms are not like Popeye's.

Im only about 12 years in, but still skinny. I am quite strong, just dont show it.
My brother does/did a lot of weights and looks like a superhero - I wouldnt stand a chance of doing a gym session with him,but can outlift him with "real world" items, he would have no chance of lifting a block and carrying it around as I do, let alone carry iron cylinder heads in each hand with fingers!

[machine shop tom]

Anyone who's hand-honed a block hopes never to have to do it again. Yes, it can produce really good results, but it's really hard work.

I hand-honed for over 30 years. Yet my arms are not like Popeye's.

Im only about 12 years in, but still skinny. I am quite strong, just dont show it.
My brother does/did a lot of weights and looks like a superhero - I wouldnt stand a chance of doing a gym session with him,but can outlift him with "real world" items, he would have no chance of lifting a block and carrying it around as I do, let alone carry iron cylinder heads in each hand with fingers!

Don't beat yourself up too bad physically. I did the same for 37+ years and my shoulders, knees, hands, and back are not in the shape they should be. You are only bullet-proof for so long.

[BCjohnny]

Big yup. The only good thing about hand honing is that I learned how metal breathes / moves and I gained the arms of a weight lifter. Don't miss it.


I have often said those that learned how to make straight holes out of crap with an AN hand hone could produce miracles with a CK machine.

Those that can't are...well.......

I only 'seriously', as in couldn't afford anything else, hand honed for a short while, but it's certainly an education ...... still have the AN 815 I bought new, and it's almost pristine, for random uses

Even after just a few blocks I thought 'stuff this for a game of soldiers' and bought the the first CK/CV I could afford ..... still have that but much better tooled now, and with a home spun 'NASCAR bar'

So completely agree, to fully utilise the power hone, you're better informed having gone through the rite of passage with a hand hone

[Kingbee]

Kingbee, there is a picture in the December 1973 Car Craft magazine showing us honing a block with that hone.

I dug into my magazine collection and came up with this! Very cool! Don’t mind the Navy insert but when I find magazines in good shape I keep the inserts intact.

I tip my hat to you Scotty. I was in my very early teens in the early/mid 70s and the M/P cars tripped my trigger big time with there high winding engines and stick shifts dancing down the quarter mile. It was a GREAT time to spend a Sunday afternoon at the drags

[smclendon]

I was 23 at that time. During that time you built the complete car. There were a few people doing chassis work like SRD but most of us didn't have the money to buy their service. Booth-Arons was building Modified Eliminator engines for some customers also. In 1974 we built a 4 Link for the car copied from Tim McDonalds 1962 Corvette we won modified Eliminator with at Indy that year. There was a article in Car Craft at a later date telling about us honing the block with Wesson Oil in a Holiday Inn parking lot the night before Monday's eliminations and winning modified eliminator. The man that told me to buy a torque plate and make a pan with a pump to hone our blocks was Bob Callaham who owned a speed shop in Atlanta called Motorcraft. There is a good article on Bob Callaham's Corvette in the May 1970 issue. The article is Disneyland With Love. He was one of the smartest racers back then.