Clone piston rings low tension

So I read up somewhere that when you preset valve lash I know you bring piston TDC and all but do you set the lash on the compression stroke or right at TDC I ran my motor this past Saturday I did get rid of the smoke and got rings seated. first time out on motor ran good 2nd time my intake valve lash came loose but I set it at TDC but of course both valves closed I feel I did something wrong besides the rocker backing off?
 
Until the ball and rocker become a mating match, you will need to reset the lash a few times. Once you get them to stay without readjusting don’t get them mixed up when you disassemble
 
So I read up somewhere that when you preset valve lash I know you bring piston TDC and all but do you set the lash on the compression stroke or right at TDC I ran my motor this past Saturday I did get rid of the smoke and got rings seated. first time out on motor ran good 2nd time my intake valve lash came loose but I set it at TDC but of course both valves closed I feel I did something wrong besides the rocker backing off?
Yes, set your lash at TDC on the compression stroke.
 
Here's my opinion.

320 grit with a ball hone is too fine for a single stage hone.

You need to hit it with a 150-180 grit to set the valley depth to retain the oil, then plateau hone it with a 320 grit for no more than 20 cycles, 1 cycle = in + out stroke. Then hit it with a 600 grit ball hone to de-feather it.

Then run it on mineral oil or break in oil for the first few hours.

If you just hone it too fine or too rough, it will either never seal......or it will take 10 hours to break-in......this is why plateau honing is so important as it seals up within 2 hours, often sooner.

If the rings are steel they like it rougher and take much longer to bed in.......if the rings are iron they bed in far quicker.

Honing is an incredibly complex subject, even above I'm missing off loads of key info which has taken me 20 years to learn.

Hope that helps.
 
Blocks should be honed while under the same stress when assembled to make good horsepower. Torque plate with head bolts at same dept as when head is torqued down. Sump cover on and torqued, I even install an old coil since some of these blocks are so thin on that side. Always use a quality 4 sided hone to keep bore concentric and perfectly straight. I used fine scotch brite to run through bore lightly after sunnen hone to clean up any excess material left from machining bore with with the sunnen hone.
Engines will smoke or allow excess oil to get by the oil ring with drag around 1.8 to 2.0 lbs. I recommend no less than 2.5 lbs, I used 3.5 to 4.0 lbs on most of mine with tight expander gaps to keep the drag from too much oil as low as possible.
 
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