Piston Ring issue

[Robyn]

Recently I started rebuilding one of our 6.5's and the project is going well.
I got a set of white box (hastings by another name) rings and when I went to install them I went through the usual task of checking the end gaps.
the top rings were all fine as were the oil rings. The second compression ring had only .012" gap and the chevy manual calls for .029"-.039".
Not wanting to chance a failure I did what we always did years ago and filed the ring's to get the spec's needed.
Just currious if anyone else has seen this crop up??
Robyn

[john8662]

Don't know if this is going to get you in trouble or not.

There are two offerings for the 6.2 and the 6.5 from Hastings. One set has the bigger 2nd compression ring, where as the other set has rings set closer to what the factory used.

Looks like you got the "other" set...

What kind of oil control ring did this set come with? Two piece of three piece?

J

[5.7L diesel]

He should be okay just as long as he files off any burrs on the ring end from the filing action.Another point to remember.....if you must file piston rings,file in one direction only.You should'nt file back and forth.A piston filer would be great to own.Beats trying to file rings manually.

[Robyn]

John
The ring set I got look's identical to the factory stuff that came out.
The top ring is a chrome faced keystone type
The second ring is a plain cast iron ring.
The oil ring is a chrome faced cast ring with vents in it and the spiral expander coil that goes under the ring and fits inside the ring.
The ends of the expander are piloted witha "wire"
This ring set looks identical to what came from the engine from the factory.
I have the short block back together now after filing the second rings a tad to get some gap.
I chated briefly with John Kennedy about this too. He uses gapless rings to stop the blowby and keep the bottom end clean.
I really dont care too much about a little soot. This beast ran 247K before the head gasket went and so as such that is not a bad life. If the head gasket had not gone the heads would have been an issue shortly as they had several valves that had sunk to the point where the lifters would have soon been unable to adjust and the show would have been over.
I have a new set of heads from Clear water coming in and so it goes.
Robyn

[john8662]

Too little gap equals accelerated cyliner wall wear. Filing the 2nd compression ring is probably the same thing I'd do.

Good to hear that the ring set had the desired 2 piece oil control ring.

Good luck with the "new" heads, those can be the suspect ACH heads, let us know when you get them.

The total seal gapless rings don't really have a smaller gap, they just overlap, so that they can still account for expansion of the ring to fully close the gap. But the gap is not there when it's colder due to the overlap of the ends.

J

[ronniejoe]

The Total Seal ring is a two piece ring. The ends of each individual piece do not overlap. Each individual piece has an end gap that meets specification. The gaps on each individual ring are assembled 180 degrees away from each other so that the assembled, two piece ring has no gap. There are photos of these in the third article in my signature and on my website.