Using truely gapless rings...
Thread Starter
On The Tree
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 107
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From: SW Virginia
Using truely gapless rings... I have an LS7 with 12:1 compression. The rings people recommended against gapless rings. But I seem to get alot of condensed water in the blow by. Alot, with the normal gapping, well installed rings. I want to change the rings to true gapless despite them, for this problem, but am afraid to. Nobody give me a good reason not to. Can someone explain this?
Edit: Sorry not clear. I get alot of water condensation in the oil pan, much more than my stock LS7 engine. If I am not conscientious about getting the oil real hot every time it gets a muddy opaque appearance, which clears up with the temp 220*F boil it off. I'm not losing radiator fluid or anything. I know it's just blow by, but I want to reduce that. So, my focus is directed to the rings.
Edit: Sorry not clear. I get alot of water condensation in the oil pan, much more than my stock LS7 engine. If I am not conscientious about getting the oil real hot every time it gets a muddy opaque appearance, which clears up with the temp 220*F boil it off. I'm not losing radiator fluid or anything. I know it's just blow by, but I want to reduce that. So, my focus is directed to the rings.
Last edited by kelp; Mar 28, 2010 at 01:17 AM.
if you are having excess blowby-the rings are not the problem.The problem is the bores are not round and straight.Putting in a gapless ring will not help this condition.
Thread Starter
On The Tree
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 107
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From: SW Virginia
although there have been random people having failures with gapless rings, there are more success stories than there are failures; there are a lot of people who are blaming other problems onto the ring design
if you do get gapless rings, make sure that you follow the instructions perfectly and that the right specifications are selected - e.g. piston design is compatible
they are a bit more sensitive to stuff like out of spec ringlands and piston dimensions, but if spec-ed properly, should be as good or better than *most* conventional ring designs
-also, do not use a gapless 2nd ring, only top ring, because they seal well enough that if a gapless 2nd ring is used, the top ring will be deprived of oil; see piston designs that only have two sets of rings with a gapless top ring for reference
_
if you do get gapless rings, make sure that you follow the instructions perfectly and that the right specifications are selected - e.g. piston design is compatible
they are a bit more sensitive to stuff like out of spec ringlands and piston dimensions, but if spec-ed properly, should be as good or better than *most* conventional ring designs
-also, do not use a gapless 2nd ring, only top ring, because they seal well enough that if a gapless 2nd ring is used, the top ring will be deprived of oil; see piston designs that only have two sets of rings with a gapless top ring for reference
_
FormerVendor
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 3,065
Likes: 6
From: Houston, Tx.
This one is old as the hills and you can do many searches. There's a reason the rings that are in cars from the factory are the way they are right from Honda or Mercedes or Ford or GM or Lamborghini etc. Your problems lie elsewhere and in fact many OEM engines as well as aftermarket do get condensation in them even just sitting around when NOT running. We see it all the time and it is annoying but the rings aren't causing it.
