DoctorD415

I have a piston ring groove cleaner and im cleaning out the grooves on my pistons, but i have a question. Should i groove it until i see shiny metal, or should i not take any metal at all off. I'm not sure if the tool is even capable of taking a lot of metal off, but im not sure if i should just go semi deep or deep enough to actually see complete bare metal? Any help would be great thanks.

67mustang302

Don't take any metal off. Just use it to clean out the junk if there is any, so that the ring seats properly in the land. If you take any metal out of it then the ring land clearance will be bigger and the rings may not seat/scrape properly.

mjr46

^^^^what he said!! I don't even use a groove cleaner when cleaning pistons for reuse...I use my small little pocket screwdriver and do it in a parts washer....depending on the severity of the carbon build up it often takes me about an hour and then I use the wire brush wheel to clean off the tops of the pistons...worked well for me many times