Good points, Mike! The other similar issues might be that even if you did wash everything out well around the top of the piston and the compression ring, some might also be washed down between the end gap of the ring and get farther down the side of the piston between the oil rings and the compression ring, never to be seen again.
In some respects, this could be a judgment call. Which would be worse, the engine that was turned over with the rusty cylinder walls and letting the rings scrape if off or the residual honing grit?
I understand the reason behind using the three-rock hone as it's really the best one to use in many cases (and the "traditional" style too), but using the "dingleberry" flex hone would do just as well in situations where you just want to "pattern" the cylinder walls. In the case of the rusty cylinder wall, I suspect that first soaking it in penetrating oil for a good while and then knocking off the "big stuff" would be the best route as to completely refinish that particular cylinder wall is a little overkill. In any event, it's not getting what might be beside the piston taken care of either, which might be suspected to be just as bad as what was above or below the piston in the cylinder (especially if the piston was at mid-stroke when the engine was stopped).
Years ago, a friend desired a cheap car to use to drive around. He wanted an older car and found a '52 Plymouth that an elderly lady had parked in her back yard. She was the last driver of the vehicle. It was purchased and wreckered to my friend's house. We soaked the cylinders of the flathead 6 for a good while and it turned over pretty easily. I had already inquired with the local old-line Chrysler product service manager at the local Chrysler dealer about rusty cylinder walls and such. He replied that the rust was only "surface rust" and would slough off when the engine was started and everything should be fine after it got everything cleaned out. Considering his experience, I did not disagree, but as it was already a used engine that had not been rebuilt, it was not going to be the best thing around either. At that time, the car was over 25 years old.
We got it fired off and things worked ok. Not a lot of oil smoke either. I scrounged some J14Y Champion plugs that I had saved back and they worked well too. Even the electric choke pulloff worked. No noises either. We never did discover where the many quarts of brake fluid we poured into the brake system was going, though.
I guess the best orientation is to know that at worst, it's going to need some engine work right up front. With a fresh oil and filter and fresh fuel in the cleaned out tank, that initial fire-off can be exciting and tense, all at the same time. Remember too, vary the rpm upon initial starting to get oil slinging around inside the motor just as you might on a motor with a new camshaft. By the same token, pouring some oil down the pushrods might do the same thing. After things get up to operating temp and stay there, hopefully the smoke out the exhaust pipe will "dry up". If you really want to go an extra step, use a drive tool on the end of a drill motor to turn the oil pump and pressurize the oil system before the engine cranks. Don't forget to change the oil and filter again after that initial running session. After things cool down overnight, check the engine oil dipstick for moisture/condensation too.
Also, don't neglect to check and change the other drive train fluids/lubes either! Getting the engine to run is just the first part of a comprehensive program to get things rolling again.
Whether or not everything works, once freed-up, is a big gamble. Sometimes you win, other times you break even, and other times you loose. But the fun of the trip isn't in the arriving, it's in the trip itself.
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