Last year I bought my 01 800 off of my friend and over the summer I bought the RKT eng. kit. One of the cyl's have a very slight cold seize. I took the cyl. to the dealer and the mechanic said I can use a ball hone on it. Is this good on the Nic. cylinder??? ;)

Never use a ball hone in a 2- stoke, very hard on the ports. Best to find a good machine shop that knows what they are dooing

Polaris used to recommend a ball hone on Nikasil because it wouldn't take the chrome off the high spots of a cold cylinder.

Because of the hardness of electroplated cylinders honing using conventional methods usually delays the grief of future engine failure. The honed finish has to perform 2 major duties, 1) provide an adequate finish to promote good ring seating and seal without removing too much material. 2) Be able to hold engine oil in the crosshatch after break in has been achieved throughout the engine's life. To get the best finish on a Nikasil barrel, diamond impregnated hone stones should be used. As the price of Sunnen SK diamond stones are $2500.00, most rebuilders do not carry them. Most cylinder replating services do have these stones and will perform honing services at a reasonable price. The question is : pay me now or pay me later?

I use muriatic acid to remove stuck aluminum and have had luck using a conventional hone to remove glaze from cylinders before reringing. I dont like the idea of useing a ball hone on two stroke engines. I am concerened that the plating might be chipped off the port radius.

The only way is a ball hone.

Ball hone that is one size small will keep the balls out of the ports better. For example,if you have a 3" bore, don't use the 3" hone, use one size smaller. Or use one that has a range that is 3'' tops, instead of one that starts at 3". I have a stiff nylon rotary brush that does a good job of deglazing and cleaning the nicasil. They come in different grits, mine is the orange. Nylon can be some nasty stuff, it'll microscratch the nicasil so you need to keep it moving in a hone motion.

I have had good success breaking the glaze without port damage on "seasoned" cylinders using foam backed 220 grit flap wheels. I select 1/4" larger than the the bore mounted on a flexible shaft and spin & stroke them at 150 RPM. After speaking with Renaud at Adrien Bernard plating, I've discovered that Nikasil chipping off the bore and window edges isn't the result of being struck by the balls of a ball hone, :nervous: it's an plating adherence problem caused by poor preparation and too low amperage used during the electro-plating process. Bernard has shown me examples of brand new jugs that have chips. I guess the best advice is to inspect the cylinders carefully then use caution when deglazing them.

Hey there Thumbdoctor I like your choice of boat, I have a 1981 Hydrostream
Viking(v-king) with a 2.4 mod v/p merc thats is ported & the exhaust chest opened up, turns a 30 pitch chopper at 7800rpm. Have you check out the web site
Scream & fly? Excellent tech & general boating forums.