Well I'm just about all done with my piston rings and had one question before I button the crank up to the rods. I called TSP and they recommended .023" gap for the top ring and .025" for the second ring since I'm doing nitrous. Measuring with a feeler guage is very tedious and I was wondering if I go like .001" gap too much on one ring will that mess anything up? I don't want to buy a whole new box of rings if I don't have to but in the same instance I want to make sure it's done right. The hand filing deal is so tedious that it's almost near impossible to get exactly .025" and .023" on every ring respectively. Am I ok if one ring gets one thousandth of an inch too much?

thanks!

 

Don't worry about it. The gaps don't all have to be perfect. Just a close as you can. All my gaps were within a few .001 of each other. None were exact.

 

Cool, thanks for the response. Now what I need to know is if the top steel ring is supposed to be super tight on each new diamond piston. I'm able to squeeze the second iron ring by hand and it will close and open freely in the ring gap but the top rings on each seem to want to stick real tight if I squeeze them into the ring gap. Is this normal?

Thanks

 

The rings should spin freely in their respective ring grooves. There should be no binding whatsoever.

Measure the ring and the ring grooves (with a feeler guage stack) and see whats what. The groove should be about a thou or so wider than the ring itself.

Good luck with the build....

Tony

 

All of the top rings bind in their respective grooves on every diamond piston. I even checked the ring gaps for any edges or flairs that may remain after the filing that could cause them to bind. They only bind at the gap portion but they seem to fit fine around the rest of the ring. I've even oil them to see if that helps and they still bind at the gaps. I'll measure with a feeler guage asap and get some specs back. Hopefully this isn't going to be a big deal...

 

It's a big deal.
Sounds like a burr from the file operation, or you may have twisted the rings when you installed them?
Find out why they are binding and fix it before you assemble.
Good luck.
Ryan

 

That my guess and its 90% likely thats the case....carefully lightly deburr the ends of the ring where you filed it. You can probably feel it with your hand if you drag it across the end of the ring.

Tony

 

Check the gap edges this morning more thoroughly and I could feel just a very slight burr on the edges with my fingernail. So I got a little piece of emery cloth, gave the edges a couple swipes and all is good

Edit: Are there any good writeups on the best way to reinstall the pistons?

Thanks!

 

Installing pistons is simple. Attach the rod end and use a piston ring compressor tool (available at autozone) and push the pistons in from the top.

 

Is it safe to use like a rubber mallet and just tap them in while the piston rings are under tension on the compressor?

Edit: answered my own question...rubber mallet works awesome!

 

Yep....that works fine.

I have to ask....what did you do about checking bearing clearances, crank endplay, etc.?

Tony

 

All the bearing clearances and crank endplay etc was all done professionally at the machine shop where it was align honed/bored. I was going to get a plastigauge but the machine shop assured me that I didn't have to since that's what I paid him to do