So piston to bore clearance doesn't matter only ring gap
Did the oil jets and crank come out for honing?
Just asking.

 

I'm hoping he just did a ball hone with OE serivce manual prescribed passes to clean it up. Anything else and the engine must come out of the car, go to a machinie shop, and go over .020 or watever. In which case, the block would have to be stripped of everything. Seems like he just did a drop in--OP corect me if I'm wrong.

You would take a piston compression ring and put it in at least 4 places in the cylinder and measure the ring gap to verify there is no "coning" of the cylinder bore. At those places, the ring gap should be the SAME. Any variances and the block is done. Place the lubricated ring in the bore and use a piston upside down and carefully press the ring down in the bore to get your test points. Not the best way, but it will get you up and running if an engine shop is out of the question and done carefully.

 

He's using head studs now anyway so the block will twist when torqued up and pinch at the top without a torque plate hone anyway. Oh well.

 

We did a ball hone. All cylinder wall scuffs and scratches were removed. There is a deep scratch left in cylinder 1 but it was just above where the rings sit at TDC. The car holds perfect compression and is running flawlessly. I put 200 miles on the motor so far. Here are some pics:

 

Good job man. Enjoy it and please use higher octane or dial the timing down this time. Recommend E85 or some sort of meth injection.

 

Car's lookin great man, I'm happy it's up and running again!!!

 

Did you notice it going lean at all before you discovered the failure? Something that could have caused excessive knock? Test your gas to see if it was a bad batch?

 

How's this car running now after a few months? How many miles?