There are several things that I do as far as liner & piston prep. is concerned. I use a soft SS 6" wire brush and Dawn Power Disolve to clean pistons. You can use regular Scotch Brite to clean pistons & liners, just don't get carried away. If liner ID is in good condition just install new ring, but if liner ID very smooth a light hone job will help to seat new ring. Measure older thin walled liners to assure they are not egg shaped. This needs to be done with precision tools & OD Micrometer. I use snap gage and measure in several places around liner ID. I always lap liner tops flat, a piece of 320 to 400 grit sandpaper taped down to very flat surface will work. Hold inverted liner top down on paper, pull liner across paper with opposite hand. Make sure to keep it flat at all times. Turn approx 90 degrees and repete process until liner top is flat. I find approx 60 percent of liner tops arn't flat, some makes better than others. This is primarily because of poor grinding wheel condition or play in grinder spindles or starting the grinding process with a cold grinder. And some liners are drawn with mandrels which distorts liner tops at times. After that, a very lite hone job is good if needed, but great care must be taken on non chromed & chromed liners. I have used auto brake cylinder hones with smooth stones and the 3 stone hones are best. Use hone on drill press or lathe slowest speed with somewhat up & down motion to give cross hatch. You can use a wooden dowel with hacksaw slit in one end and a piece of Emery cloth from 1" to 1&1/2" wide X 2" to 4" or more depending on dia. of liner. Fold tape in half grit sides out, again turn it slow with rapid up & down strokes. Use only 320 to 400 grit as anything other than suggested will scratch liner too much & wear out new ring quickly. Check outside of liner to assure no nicks or dings are felt or visiable. Try liner in block to see how it fits, a little oil on liner helps to keep it from binding. Before installing ring or rings, check ring fit in ring groove and liner. Ring shouldn't bind in either and gap should be .001 to .0015 per every 1" of bore for cast iron rings. Most modern engine pistons are pinned to keep ring in one location. This is done for several reasons but primarily to keep ring ends from entering open port window. Mark the top of the piston with a line pointing to pin location, that is where ring ends go on both sides of pin and the line helps locate ring during assembly. During assembly ring ends should never go into open port window, always ride up & down on solid cylinder wall surface. Never force anything, if something is tight, it's wrong. I fit rings to liners & in ring groove, and lap liner tops flat for free with ring orders if you send parts to me. I hope some of this info helps and this is what I do, there are other ways of accomplishing the above mentioned ring installation. On older 2 ring pistons bottom new ring can be gently expanded over bottom of piston skirt & up piston into bottom groove, or install in upper groove and work it down into second groove. There are precautions to be considered in both ways of doing this. I always say you can run just top ring if you wish as my rings are round with tight gaps so second ring not needed. I can expand more on this if anyone needs this info. Take Care & God Bless All. Frank Bowman