FR691V can I reuse this scored cylinder?

Tiger Small Engine said:
Why would a customer pay up to $2000 for a used, partially rebuilt engine? An engine they can buy new for around $3000.
Most likely you will find as you get busier and build your customer base that going in this deep on engines is not worth the time, effort, focus, and risk.
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Fair point. $2250 (engine + labor) versus $1500 - $2000. This math is one of the things I am struggling to sort out. This is a hard lesson for me to learn.

Makes me want to do what I can to keep the final bill to $1500. I don't like the idea of failing to give the customer a good value for the money they spent.

Also, I need to improve my ability to determine the internal failure before I crack into the crankcase. There were a couple of things I could have done differently during diagnostics.
 
I hear wedding bells on a patch job like this. I might risk it for myself and take the pending loss but never try this "get by" attempt with a customer machine.

The customer will think they have a new engine with a "lifetime warranty".
 
I was a machinist who bored and honed blocks and motorcycle cylinders for a living, and told you an unequivocal no. I suspected you were only going to listen to what you want to hear. You indicate you consulted with two machinists about honing it yet YOU HONED IT. Why not let them? You weren't the machinist giving the opinion yet they avoided honing it. Interesting. Feel sorry for your client or the buyer who ends up with it. Fortunately Karma has a way of dealing with things like this. It is not too late to deal with this properly.

Also - the scratches in that bore show someone took it apart who had no clue what they were doing. If it was you, I can only shake my head at the lack of professionalism. If it was someone else, you should have told them that the engine could be made to run but it would not last long, and you would not warranty the work.
 
New short block at the least. You want to keep your butt covered. Attempting to repair something like that is opening yourself up to more problems down the road.
 
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sgkent said:
I was a machinist who bored and honed blocks and motorcycle cylinders for a living, and told you an unequivocal no. I suspected you were only going to listen to what you want to hear. You indicate you consulted with two machinists about honing it yet YOU HONED IT. Why not let them? You weren't the machinist giving the opinion yet they avoided honing it. Interesting. Feel sorry for your client or the buyer who ends up with it. Fortunately Karma has a way of dealing with things like this. It is not too late to deal with this properly.

Also - the scratches in that bore show someone took it apart who had no clue what they were doing. If it was you, I can only shake my head at the lack of professionalism. If it was someone else, you should have told them that the engine could be made to run but it would not last long, and you would not warranty the work.
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You made a lot of assumptions there. You haven't talked to my customer. You didn't see the cylinder in person. The lighting in the photo made things look worse than it actually was. I don't appreciate your comment about bad Karma and you shouldn't be so rude. I don't know you personally and I don't think you should be so upset that I took the advice of people I respect that I know personally. Please be kinder.

And yes, I am still learning and trying to do my best. I will stand by my work. If that means I have to pay $2000 to put a brand new engine in it down the road, that is what I will do. The customer is a friend of mine who is well aware of the fact that I am learning and that he is taking a risk by going with me.
 
You didn't see the cylinder in person.
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I did not have to. I looked very closely with blown up images at the depth of the shadows, and where the ring travel stopped. You had to go over size to get rid of those. Piston to cylinder clearance is only .0015" to .003" when properly set. That is not much.Two things happen when honing a cylinder, metal gets removed, and unless the stroke is properly controlled the cylinder, and the stones wear uneven. The uneven stones make things worse.

How much did you overlap the bore ends, and for how long on each stroke to keep the stones and bore from hourglassing? Any oversize will cause the piston to slap, and any scratches above the bottom of the ring travel will leak.

It isn't my mower and it isn't my customer. Are you suggesting that if I had not hurt your feelings with brutal honesty that the engine would run better for your client and the likelihood of a return would be less?

scratches.jpg
 
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If it were mine, I would try it. Doesn't look like the wear is in the ring area of the cylinder. I have a FX 1000 I got for free looks about like that that I am going to try to fix.
 
hlw49 said:
If it were mine, I would try it. Doesn't look like the wear is in the ring area of the cylinder. I have a FX 1000 I got for free looks about like that that I am going to try to fix.
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The point I am trying to emphasize is this; risk versus reward. Until you open an engine up, you don’t truly know the condition off each part. Another problem is trying to “work with” partially damaged parts to keep cost down. If your parts cost is $500 and your labor is $1000, that means about 10 hours labor at $100/hour. That all sounds reasonable
hlw49 said:
If it were mine, I would try it. Doesn't look like the wear is in the ring area of the cylinder. I have a FX 1000 I got for free looks about like that that I am going to try to fix.
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The Point is risk versus reward. The vast majority of shops these days will NOT rebuild engines or hydros. Don’t feel pressured to think you have to offer customers everything, just because you can. Learning to say no is a beautiful thing!
 
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