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Hello All, I was wondering if anyone knows of a small machine shop (in the Continental United States) that performs cylinder boring and honing with respect to lawn mower engines.

I have a vehicle repair shop in my area that does my boring on engines that I rebuild. You may want to try some of your local independent shops to see if they bore, or they may know another shop that they send their work to. The shop that I use primarily does larger vehicles.

None lleft in our area. I did years ago but it is no longer cost effective to rebuild the smaller engines, the local techs have no idea how to do it.

There is a speed shop near me that will do it but their cost, my labor and parts makes it cheaper to replace the engine. If it just needs honed to break the glaze it can be cost effective. For what the shop charges i could buy a Lisle 15000 hone and fit my own oversize pistons but just not worth it financially.

The mower race shops usually have contacts that rebore engines.
Down here there are almost no oversized pistons except for the older flat head engines.

I'm in Texas, I found a place near Houston that will bore & hone for $55. So I will tear down my GXV120 and GXV140 and send them down. I plan to go 0.50 over STD bore to get a little more HP.

Might you share thier name? The shop who did it here in Dallas stopped since the guy who did it left, and he owned all the tools . . . Commercially, maybe not, but for an individual, a rebuild is so much cheaper than an *equivalent* replacement it's stupid. (IE I do not consider Chinese dung equivalent in any way (well, maybe other than as a sea anchor) to something like a Honda GX . . .).

Chris Parman said:

I'm in Texas, I found a place near Houston that will bore & hone for $55. So I will tear down my GXV120 and GXV140 and send them down. I plan to go 0.50 over STD bore to get a little more HP.

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I used to build 5hp briggs for kart racing. I really doubt you will see any performance increase with a .5mm overbore. You would be better off getting a performance cam. That you will notice. Don't know your application but if you are planning to up the revs over stock may want to remove the govenor gear. That will give out before the con rod. You can thin the flywheel key and advance the timing a few degrees too. If you do the cam and timing buy and extra recoil assy and pull the starter rope like you mean it. Saw a guy break a finger when a built 5hp briggs kicked back trying to start it.

Chris Parman said:

I'm in Texas, I found a place near Houston that will bore & hone for $55. So I will tear down my GXV120 and GXV140 and send them down. I plan to go 0.50 over STD bore to get a little more HP.

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I've worked in small machine shops before and can't understand why it would be difficult for any machine shop to bore a small engine.

What gives? Set up should be a little time consuming. But boring it, after set up, should be a snap.

Tadawson, here is the name

Accurate Cylinder & Sleeve Works
24230 Kuykendahl Rd
STE 310 #148
Tomball, TX 77375

The shops do not like to rebore aluminum cylinders and for good reason. It is time consuming and the operator needs to know what he is doing. Also make sure the shop follows the engine manufacturers specs, boring a small air cooled to automotive tolerances guarantees an early failure.

Chris Parman said:

Tadawson, here is the name

Accurate Cylinder & Sleeve Works
24230 Kuykendahl Rd
STE 310 #148
Tomball, TX 77375

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Thanks!

Tadawson, this machine shop (Accurate Cylinder and Sleeve works) has services offered on Ebay and positive reviews. So I assume they do good work. Here is a sample service offered on Ebay.

PTmowerMech said:

I've worked in small machine shops before and can't understand why it would be difficult for any machine shop to bore a small engine.

What gives? Set up should be a little time consuming. But boring it, after set up, should be a snap.

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Because you have to bore true to the crank so you need to make up mounting plates strong enough to hold it clamped to the crankcase 1/2
Then if it is an all alloy barrel you have to make up a compression plate pulling the head face down lest you end up with a pincushion failure ( some call it a 4 square failure )
Lots of buggerizing around unless you are specifically set up to do them

Romore said:

The shops do not like to rebore aluminum cylinders and for good reason. It is time consuming and the operator needs to know what he is doing. Also make sure the shop follows the engine manufacturers specs, boring a small air cooled to automotive tolerances guarantees an early failure.

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Totally agree. I always take the piston with me and also include the manufacturers spec sheet also for proper tolerance and how to measure the piston correctly for those tolerances.