A dingleberry hone?

Mike Puckett

SCCoA Member
Indeed, I'm now the owner of a 3" dingleberry hone. Officially called a cylinder flex hone it's dozens abrasive balls on wire ends attached to a spiral shaft. After just receiving and installing an Extrude Honed lower tube on my drag racer, I took the metal cutting tool/die grinder and the dingleberry hone to the set going onto my red 90. The 2 tools really ground out the inside of the tubes and I was able to go quite deep into them, aluminum chips and black dust everywhere. They came out pretty good, almost as much as the Extrude Hone process did for as far as I could reach with it. I wrapped the new tube with thermal tape and painted it before installing. I did 3 tubes last night and made a total mess but I'm real pleased with the results.
 

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And here's what I did it with. The compressor ran the whole time but kept up the air pressure no problem. Glad I got ear plugs!
 

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I bought it at NAPA. They come in 3" to 4" diameters and in 2 different lengths. $68 and up. The little balls stand right up when it spins. A die grinder is too fast and a high speed air or electric drill works best. It goes right around bends in the tubing and a flexible extension will extend it's reach.
 
How will that work on the lower???? Just curious if it is even worth trying. I've been doing the same thing with a spare upper that I have laying around...The only difference is that I've been using a dremel! So needless to say, the going is slow, and I can't get all the way in there yet. You can email me too on the price you would charge to finish what I'm not too sure if I will or not.
 
Not me- I'm going to have a go at it myself.

As soon as I read "dingleberry hone" "cylinder flex hone" and saw a picture of it, I just had to have one! :D

Just curious- would it help cut down the mess if you stuck a vaccum hose in one end of the tube while you worked on the other end?
 
Yes, a vacuum would be good. The grinding tool took out the most metal and makes a lot of filings. The hone makes a dust but if you use a WD40 kinda lube it makes an abrasive mud instead of dust. I was surprised as to how far I could reach with die grinder and hone. I'm having trouble getting the teflon tape to seal. It keeps mushing out and not sealing. So I went in closer and put another layer outside of it and made it wide enough to cover the whole surface. I hope this gets its this time. I can tell when the seal breaks because it misses real bad, usually in 3rd when I punch it but not in 1st or 2nd. I really anxious to try them out. Snow/sleet/freezing rain tonight but 60 and sunny on saturday for the test & tune.
 
You should try those Tbird88 gaskets. Although from what I hear he may be diificult to get in touch with for the time being...

I just ordered myself a 3" dingleberry hone! Anyone who's interested, they sell them here too:

www.cartools.com

Mike, didn't you say a diegrinder was too powerful?
 
I'll echo what joenintiesc said about Wynn's gaskets. I kept having trouble with a miss and resealed the ICs with his gaskets and picked up over 2 lbs of boost that I was unknowingly leaking. Instead of 13lbs, I'm getting 15lbs.
 
The die grinder is Ok for the burr but not the hone. It's too fast. I've got an air drill that I use. A plug in high speed electric drill should work Ok. My cordless works but is too slow.
 
When you ported the tube did you use both? Or just the dingleberry? What would happen if I just stuck the dingleberry in the tube? He-he...:p
 
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