If I'm not boring and honing for new pistons I use a button hone and motor oil as a lubricant, followed by a healthy scrubdown with a stiff bristle brush and HOT water with dishwashing liquid, followed by repeated rinses with water that's almost boiling. A round toilet brush makes a pretty good cylinder scrubber. When a white terrycloth towel comes out perfectly clean after a thorough scrubbing and the cylinder tries to flash-rust as soon as the water dries, it's clean enough for new rings.
Rebored cylinders need the last 2-3 thousandths taken out with a rigid hone to remove the machining marks and apply a good cross hatch pattern for ring seating.
The new generation of low-tension rings needs a totally different cylinder prep with a much smoother surface finish. Those rings simply don't tolerate any cylinder taper at all. I was a consultant on some problems with Cadillac Northstar engines a few years back where cylinders factory-bored 1/2 thousandth too big started using oil after only 25K miles in service!
Jerry
