it worked.
for the record and for anyone who might be looking for answers:

I had a blown up single piston engine that had ingested bits of dirt through a loose intake rubber after the air filter. then the engine had catastrophic loss of oil while on a long distance ride (the front fell off).

the intake side of the piston had sand embedded in the skirt below the thin oil scaper rings, both main rings looked okay-ish but they had minor scoring on the intake side, in same spot as the piston and cylinder. it wasn't deep and it instantly lost compression from lack of oil, so damage was minimal-ish but noticable with the fingernail test.

after a thorough hone of the cylinder scoring can still be seen but not felt at all, theres an even crosshatch now.

I dug sand particles out of the aluminum piston with a knife tip, leveled the top and bottom lower piston skirts with a medium diamond file but didnt touch the bottom skirt at all.
all rings were taken out and inspected, ring grooves cleaned out, oil scraper rings in the bottom were cleaned and showed no damage, top and 2nd ring had slight scoring that my fingernail could pick up in one spot but the rest showed minor surface damage similar to an 800 grit finish along the stroke.

I took a fine diamond file to the two main rings and went along evenly until all scoring disappeared while keeping the file flat, then i polished both rings with a fine dremel rubber wheel to a mirror finish. at that stage i could make out slight imperfections in the rings again, but those couldnt be picked up with the fingernail test at all.

everything came back together without a hitch, the engine started up after two kicks, there are no weird noises, no lag, it just feels great and there are no funky burning oil smells.
in the following images those rings havent been polished yet, this is just after cleaning and honing the cylinder.

that's all
see ya
#rape #finance #redneckengineering