ul-ss

I have a low mileage lm7, im pretty sure he said it was around 8k miles on it. I was reading it is important to open up the ring gap on lower mileage motors. But I was wondering how big of a gap? Thanks for any help

transaminator99

iTrader: (3)

if your staying n/a leave it alone ..if your going boost .028 top ring

ul-ss

I'm going to be going boosted shooting for around 600whp

ul-ss

so is .028 good for the top and stock botttom?

2muchboostNY

iTrader: (8)

From what I understood you do not want to gap both rings to the same size as it creates flutter. Dont quote me on this but I believe the top ring should be gapped up to 0.025 and the bottom ring can be gapped a bit more. I wouldnt hold me to that but there are threads on here with real world data.

Forcefed86

iTrader: (4)

.006 x bore for top
.0064 X bore for bottom

Pretty standard and even overly "safe" for forced induction. So .022 and .024 is fine for a 5.3 IMO.

denmah

iTrader: (2)

its hard to go wrong with 28 top and 24 bottom

Forcefed86

iTrader: (4)

I'm lost, why would you gap the top larger than the bottom?




Straight from Weisco...

http://www.aa1car.com/library/ringendgap_wiseco.pdf

Other stuff I read says you don't need to worry about ring flutter unless your reving the engine over 8000 RPM... so who knows.

toytech93

iTrader: (2)

I read somewhere forged pistons can handle slightly tighter gaps .006 x bore. compared to hypereutectic pistons .0065 x bore. Anyone ever hear of this before ?

ul-ss

so a .024 gap for the top and stock bottom would be a safe route?

Forcefed86

iTrader: (4)

Not really. You want the bottom gapped wider than the top. (from what i read anyway) If you went .024 on top go .026 bottom. Though as many have proved doing otherwise isn't going to cause major issues.

denmah

iTrader: (2)

i have always read opposite, this is why i dont touch the rings at all lol

soundengineer

iTrader: (16)

I never re-gap rings....
I always put on new ones, and you set it by the manufacturer recommendations... every brand of rings has their own specs that they want to see for optimum performance and life.

its is always based on Bore size and type of power(NA/N20/FI)

RonSSNova

iTrader: (3)

The rings in your engine are now perfectly worn to the bore.
First thing you need to do is disassemble it and measure the gaps.

Mine had 126k. The tops were .019" and the second was .028".

I opened the top to .024" to .025". I left the second alone.

The bottom ring is the oil ring. Leave them alone.

BTW, from everything I've read, the stock rings are excellent. Hard to beat them going aftermarket. They are also quite expensive to buy from GM. Another reason to re-use them.

Lastly, don't mix them up cyl to cyl.