It might re-ring fine. Best bet is to strip it, get it cleaned and get the bores measured. The engine shop will advise on the best rings. Do the cam bearings and Welch plugs while it is apart. In my experience bearings wear out faster than rings, as you are pulling it apart use some plastiguage and see what clearance is there. You can buy .001 bearings as well as standard.

The more I read the more I realize that ANY ring ridge means a re-bore. 

Where is my wallet? It's run off and hid.

 

Now this is good thinking, I had never thought to do this.

Mark, did you see this---


"You can measure the bore wear just below the ridge without using any high tech expensive equipment. Put a ring in the bore - square it up with a piston from the top.
measure the ring gap. Push the ring to the bottom of the bore, measure the ring gap. Divide the difference in the gaps by 3 (well 3.142 if you wish to be pedantic) and this is the wear on the bore diameter
And yes as stated the ridge is the unworn original diameter of the bore."

Funny...just doing the same thing! Just on a 283..not the big 327. have you looked at Rock auto rebuild kits? Never heard of enginetech...but I'm sure they don't make their own parts,so could be getting the same parts as other kits? Just doing a stocker rebuild on mine and yes..may not need re bored..just see what the max allowance is on a stock bore and go from there. Have done this before...use the piston(inverted) to push the ring down...this will keep it true to the cyl wall. My project that has been sitting for 40 years(heads/intake off) at dads. Can also get sealedpower kit.

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/chevrolet,1962,impala,4.6l+283cid+v8,1324932,engine,engine+rebuild+kit,5316

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/chevrolet,1968,chevy+ii,5.3l+327cid+v8,1040320,engine,engine+rebuild+kit,5316

 

The Rock Auto kit for my engine IS cheaper than Northern Auto but I'm the kind of guy who's old and crusty, set in my ways! I am betting the Enginetech kits are fine, or they wouldn't be selling them.

Good stuff. That can be pretty stressful sometimes. It's a bit scary when you have to use some grunt to get them out. You worry how that bore is going to look.

I hear you John, most of the places down here I wouldn't trust much with my stuff. Sometimes there is no choice. This time it appears I might have a choice. I might let them clean the block though..maybe.

Jim, I was blessed with lifters that just came right out with no effort, to which I'm thankful. If they were stuck, I would have pulled them up as far as they would go, then pulled the cam and maybe dropped them out the bottom?

Anyway, took some caps off and pulled 1-2 piston. Journals look to be in good condition, and I cannot feel ANY ring ridge, at least in these two bores. So maybe this 327 is candidate for a simple refresh?

 

I am surprised by the hone marks also. The piston rings used back then where hard as nails with lots of tension and wore the cylinder as much as the rings. Has the engine been rebuilt? I would clean off the tops of the pistons and check for being stamped oversize. I also agree with Carl, I reringed lots of engines back in the 70s with no problems. Some had such a high ridge that I had to ridge ream to get the pistons out. Back in the 70s, 80,000 miles was high mileage on a car. Most people traded every three to five years.

I'm with Prefectca, the original top ring and oil rings on these were chrome plated rings and were hard on bores. It may just be a fairly low mile engine though.

If the bore comes up within tolerance, hone it, re-use the pistons and re-ring it. You can buy a tool to de-carbonise the ring slots. Before you pull all pistons out use some plastigauge on a few journals.

I'm not math major so someone correct me if I'm wrong, but this is my calculations and final answ!r.

.0385" - .0360" = .0025" divided by 3.14 (pi) = .0007956"

That's not even .001" taper.

You divide by pi because the .0025" is the difference in the circumference, and you want to know the difference in the diameter.