What is an aline hone (or a line hone, I'm not sure which is it)?

 

Align hone?

 

That could be it. I only talked to the guy once and it was over the phone so it was hard to undestand him. What is an align hone?

 

An alighn-hone, or line-hone, is an extremely rigid [and round] bar with an abrasive coating that's slipped through the mains of the block. It's expanded and rotated simultaneously, boring all the main journals to the same size, as well as making them perfectly straight. Imagine how a block might sag a little on the ends so everythings not in a straight line anymore. If the mains aren't straight, the crank won't rotate freely. Even on a properly machined, sleeved block, at high stress levels the only thing that really keeps the mains aligned is the crankshaft's rigidity.
A torque plate is a think [flat] plate that bolts to the top of the block and simulates the heads being torqued down. Regardless of block used, when the head, with head qasket, is torqued into place, the cylinder bores will distort. if you want your cylinders to be straight and round, it's essential that you simulate the installed head by using a torque plate on during the line-honing to properly stress the block. If you don't do these things, you can wind up with a machined block that is straight all by itself, but then different once the head is bolted in place.