The truth is that most enthusiasts willing to tackle an engine rebuild for themselves know at least the basics of how to get it done “the right way.” And one of the most elementary steps of doing it the right way is having your core block honed by a professional machine shop to make sure that your piston rings can get a good seal, and give you hundreds of thousands of miles of trouble free enjoyment. Then, there will always be a rogue group of enthusiasts, who for whatever reason, deviate from the accepted norms of engine building and choose to go about it their own way. These two videos from YouTube are prime examples of that kind of thinking, and as much as it goes against the flow of “conservative” engine building practices, we think it’s actually pretty cool – or at the very least incredibly gutsy and admirable.

Both of the videos were done by Justin Gindin, from Norristown, Pennsylvania, in his very own garage. We contacted Gindin to see if he could offer some insight into what possessed him to try this kind of skill-sensitive work for himself. He tells us, “I bought this 80,000 mile LQ4 off of Craigslist for my ‘86 Trans Am to replace a hydrolocked LS1 that’s in it now. I decided to dig into the LQ4 because I just can’t leave things alone, and I’m glad I did because I found out that the crank was complete junk. Luckily the block was fine though. I’m trying to get the new engine swapped and get my car back on the road for as little money as possible, but I figured that if I was going to replace the crank, I might as well put in some fresh piston rings as well.”

“After checking the cylinder walls, they were pretty decent, with just a little bit of wear but not much. The cost to have the cylinders honed at my local shop was $175. The idea of a “hone” scared me, because I didn’t want to lose the fit and have to buy new pistons. I wanted to deglaze just enough to clean up the bores and give the rings a nice surface. I did some research and I finally decided to just do it myself. So I went with a 400-grit flex hone on my drill to lessen the chance of me taking off too much or being too aggressive.” Gindin adds.

We can almost feel some of you rolling your eyes out there, thinking to yourselves, “That engine won’t even make it around the block.” Well, you can say what you want about Gindin’s methods, but in the end you have to admit that it’s just this type of “I’ll make do with what I’ve got and still get the job done” thinking that hot rodding was built on. Gindin sums it up in his video on measuring piston ring gap by saying, “If a month later I have no compression, and the motor eats itself, then I’ll have myself to blame. But, I’m really not out that much money at this point.”

Gindin left us with this final thought, ““In the end, the tools cost me under $100, and I’m betting I could resell the hone and recoup some of that money. I have a wife and a 6 month old that come first, and this was my low-budget solution. I’m not saying this is the best way, or even the right way. But it is a way that I was willing to try for myself.”

We plan to keep following this story, so stay tuned to LSXMAG to find out how the garage built LQ4 turns out…