Piston Rings

d4490 · Post by **d4490** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 10:12 am

What are you guys using for piston rings, brand, size, coatings, gap per bore, etc?

Darin, your brother mentioned in his interview with Don that RM inspects all of their rings that come thru the door. What types of equipment are you using to inspect those rings? Are you designing and building your own tension scales, or are you purchasing them from an outside source? Do you even check the ring tension? Do you check the profile on the ring?

I am currently working for one of the larger piston ring manufacturers, and would like to know what the end users are using for inspection.

d4490 · Post by **d4490** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 10:29 am

Over 100 views and know replies. Are piston rings that much of a secret?

Ron C. · Post by **Ron C.** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 11:20 am

You have someone in your own home town who can answer all your questions. If your working for Speed Pro he has done R&D for you. Trust his answers, he's one sharp individual. See website attached below if you don't know who I'm talking about.
Blessings........

k-star · Post by **k-star** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 11:30 am

I am not going to be much help but i'll give you the little info i have....

I have used trw, sealed power, hastings, total seals, and grant rings.

I have had the most problems with the total seals and the least problems with the plane old sealed power E251K and similar style rings. I personally love the SS50 oil rings in the sealed power sets.

I have not done any real QC controlled testing but i did load a piston with a set of the E251K rings and pulled it through a cylinder and then did the same test with the total seals and got 5 ft lbs more pull force with the total seals......5 ft lbs x 8 cylinders= 40 lbs i just cannot see where the benifit is with these rings.......

The total seal rings were on a 358 alcohol late model engine. When it came back to freshin the piston tops were saturated with oil as were the chambers, and all around the valve stems. The engine previous had the cheep E251K's in and had no such problem, when it left my shop it had the E251K's in it again. The next time it came back it was back to clean cylinders...... I know this is propably a stupid thing but it was almost like it was sucking the oil out from around the guides with the total seals in it...

The one engine i built with the grant rings was the best initial leak engine i ever built at about 3 percent but it was a MG 4 cyl so i chalked it up to the basic engine design....

I am just a small shop i am sure someone else should have a buch more for you....

You do have me thinking about how i can make a gauge for checking ring tension tho!!!!!!!!

Keith

CNC BLOCKS · Post by **CNC BLOCKS** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 12:32 pm

On a couple of engines we build that use the 5/64 ring package we use the Hastings low tension oil ring this seems to make a good ring package and no oiling problems.

ADR · Post by **ADR** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 1:03 am

This doesn't have anything to do with inspection although I wish it did.

My worst Ring experience happened just a couple of years ago on one of my blown ford motors. I bought a set of "premium" rings from a reputable vendor in the Ford mod motor arena and it turned out to be a major PITA. My first clue should have been that the rings cam packaged in a sandwich bag....seriously.

Anyway to make a long story short the motor used a ton of oil ( 1 quart to 100 miles at first) after 4000 miles of this I pulled it apart and after looking everything over I found problems with the quality of the second ring. When I put the ring under a maginfying glass you could plainly see the wear pattern. There were places on the rings that were not even touching the bore, all around the circumferance of the ring were shiney wear patches and then nothing...no contact. Its like the rings had 8 sides to them or something. I wish I could have found that before it went in the motor but I didn't.

Of course my friend John Haskell says "You didn't light test the rings like I told ya too....did ja"........nope I didn't

Dale

k-star · Post by **k-star** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 7:49 am

So what is the "light test" ????

Keith

d4490 · Post by **d4490** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 7:58 am

Light testing is when you load the piston into the bore, or a gage that has the same diameter as the bore, and see if you can see light around the ring. We use special fixture for checking light on our rings.

This thread is not just about the inspection of rings. I would like to know what ring everyone runs, and why you like that brand, size, coating, etc.

We build our own gaging here as well, but I do know on at least one company that builds tension and profile tracers here in the states. I believe that Katech Inc. has one of these gages.

http://www.katechengines.com/engineer/index.htm