Has anyone had success with this or even tried it on an LSX? We have been discussing it in my thermodynamics class and im interested in some real life experience with it.

 

You'll find gas ports on every pro stocker and every Cup car and you *may* find it in Cart/IRL...it depends on who built the engine. Europeans often won't because they regard it a "American V8" thing...whatever. In my opinion, $100 can be spent a lot of places more effectively to gain power, but when you've done all the others, it's a logical place to go.

Drag racers generally go vertically. That being said, some Nitrous guys won't run them because it's the first place a crack will start in the top land.....some do successfully though. I've seen anywhere from 8 to 16 of different diameters even on equally good engines. Because the verticals can become plugged with carbon, the roadrace and circle track guys generally go laterally, which is hard to spot...it basically bisects the top of the top ring groove and runs a channel to the back of the groove. People have run them on the street successfully too-even for extended periods. Yes it does apply pressure to the backside of the ring, but mostly on the first 30% of the powerstroke.

The thinner, lighter, more conformable, and flatter surface of the ring/ring groove, the less it's necessary (per x piston speed)...but if you're looking for the last little bit...it never seems to hurt. We've dyno'd some very high quality .7mm ring combinations that it didn't seem to help either....but I'd say that's the exception. If you're turning quite a bit of piston speed w/ a "off the shelf" 1/16 ring...I'd say gas ports would help more. Also, at the Engine Masters challenge this year, we ran .043 rings without gas ports (because it wasn't legal. Some people tried dykes, but the winners were running anywhere from .8mm to .043 conventional rings according to the finalist I worked with.. He also said his sealed up great....no issues running thin rings without gas ports..at least on our pistons

hope this helps. -Brian Nutter-Wiseco Automotive.

 

That was some good info.

 

No kidding. Wow. Now THAT's an Advanced Tech Forum answer, haha

 

Thanks for the answer Brian. Some good reading there.

 

no ****!!! i was gonna say something but not now

 

Well, my "real life experience" is that I've yet to see it not work on any application I've been involved with, race or street. Ring design, gas port size, design, placement, and clearances all need to be taken into account, or you may draw some inaccurate conclusions. I can say that there is double digit power to be restored/gained when gas ports are PROPERLY implemented.

 

I vote the same as LS, we gas port every motor. I've never seen a port hole crack.

 

Ditto, I also use gas ported pistons on all race engines I build. Will a 350 HP street engine in good condition benefit significantly from gas porting, probably not. Combustion pressures are low, blow by is minimal. Most likely not worth while.
Will a 1200 HP turbo or nitrous combination with more than twice the cylinder pressure see a gain due to gas porting, absolutley. It's a very practical method of helping the rings seal against high pressure combustion gases.
I believe Reher Morrison uses a 1000 HP bogey in their recomendation on when to use gas ports. I'm sure that in a smaller ci engine that # could be brought down a bit.