Yeah, you definitely want to get some sort of cross hatch back in the bores before fitting the new pistons. The cross hatch helps the rings to bed in which is vitally important if you want you're engine to be reliable long term, make full power, and not drink oil.

Ideally you want something along the lines of a flexhone for the best finish, but there expensive for a one off use. If I were you I'd use one of the machinemart/sealey honing tools to get a reasonable cross hatch on the bores, unless you can find someone nearby with a flexhone.

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Oulton Park in a BTCC 306 vid 1
Oulton Park in a BTCC 306 vid 2
Lap of the 'ring

I honed my block a couple of years ago when i had a few issues and needed the pistons pocketing. The hone i used i borrowed from the local machine shop that did all my head work, it was the type that has loads of stone bobbles sticking out from the centre shaft (unsure of the technical terms, had a few bevvies )
I used loads of WD40 down each bore before i did it and plenty on the honing tool, with a mate spraying more as I was honing. The trick was to have the drill relatively slow and go up and down pretty quick to leave a nice cross hatch.
We left the crank in as the block was still in the car at the time with the gearbox still attached, so we covered the crank journals for each cylinder to stop anything getting on them.
Afterwards clean each bore meticulously and wipe down each crank journal to ensure theres no crap left behind.

I was going to check the ring gaps for mine before installing but my machine shop told me that they'd got each one and tested it in-house on another 86mm bore engine to make sure they were right for me.

Once the engine was back together I used some running in oil for 500 miles (I ran mine in driving it to the nurburgring ) then dropped that and stuck my usual Fuchs Pro-S 10w50 in.
I read that when bedding the rings in it's best to not just stick to one speed, and not rev it excessively high, so as i was driving along i'd give it some wide open throttle up to around 4-5k then stick it in 6th and let it slowly come back down the revs. I read many contradictory methods but went with the above one in the end. It's up to you to double check whether you want to use the method i used or not.

I did all this a couple of years ago, the engine is still in one piece and has done many laps of the nordschleife, a few thousand road miles and multiple trackdays since with no real issues to report.

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Goldie the track car.

By the looks of the part on the pug1off kit it looks like the 137 belt set up which I would prefer not to use as mentioned on a few threads on here

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http://www.306gti6.com/forum/showthread.php?id=163869

Do you mean the 3 leg type hone with a scotch pad wrapped around it

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http://www.306gti6.com/forum/showthread.php?id=163869

Make sure you use a mineral oil for running in, a semi or full synthetic is a big no no as it ‘arrests’ the breaking in process of the rings.

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Team Running Engine again!
Team Negative Camber!
My Budget track engine build thread!
Now appearing at a Trackday near you!!

Wouldn't be that much but if you're interested then do it yourself. You'll learn something and save some money at the same time. There's not a massive amount involved really. Strip it, check all the journals and bores to make sure there within tolerance. Give it a really good steam jet wash and scrub all the oil ways etc.

Then rebuild everything checking clearances with plastigauge or a mic and bore gauge as you go.

Be careful with the main bearing cap bolts, the specified torque reading is not enough!

Personally I'd say the bottom end is easier than the cylinder head unless machining work is required.

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Oulton Park in a BTCC 306 vid 1
Oulton Park in a BTCC 306 vid 2
Lap of the 'ring

Every block I have tried honing all have ended up scrap due to the bore wear, only 1 I did manage to use was my Race engine which had only done 45k before I used it and then it was just about right for forged pistons so be wary as it may lead to sleeving or overboreing it
I can supply all the rebuild parts at a better price than above as well, they use the same supplier as I do

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