Yah, I know. It's not the base material that's the problem. It's the coating. The moly flakes off under certain conditions, as noted. I think that the term "chrome" is also describing the process & not material. Chroming is done by putting opposite charges on the part & the material being applied. Plasma requires heat whether or not it's done w/ gas or electricity. Anyway, I want to avoid the possibility of a problem if possible. Looks like all of the manufactures have gone to plasma joining as opposed to chrome joining.

The reason I noted the ductile iron is because the iron is the coating instead of the moly.
Ductile on ductile instead of moly on ductile.


araber89 congrats! If you ever want to get her a pretty gemstone to mount in something, come to me. I'll save you a bundle on the stone & can give you much larger than you'll find; 8ct ruby for example. Any jeweler can mount it in whatever setting you want.

when i assembled my short block, my rings didnt appear coated at all. as long as they are fitted to the pistons correctly, there is no reason why they should flake, knock/overheat or whatever. our motors dont use oil squirters, so tht eliminates that variable. i know in alot of the nissan motors they use squirters and if one fails, that piston is toast. but our rings should have oil no matter what.

like i said *properly setup rings* will last forever. technology now-a-days is so advanced, material science is down to a "science". lol they know what to use and it works. just needs to be used right.

the corner of my damn stock ss hood broke off........ im guessing this is repairable?? so fucking pissed.. I can't believe how easy it snapped off right by the driver side windshield..

time for a sunoco

got a pic dee? What'd you do to it??

Thanks LS1-450. I'll keep that in mind.

By the way I have the intake manifold and valve covers off and i can't find any sign of any left over foam or valve damage. Which I can't see a whole lot but from what I can see it looks good. There does seem to be a fair amount of oil under the intake manifold. Which might be from the PCV which I have now changed about 500 miles back. It was leaking a little there...

Bob, most rings are coated, meaning have a layer applied over another. The top layer of the rings are moly. You can't see the fact that there are two separate layers just by looking & it does flake. I have pics & can see it clearly. Flaking has little to do w/ piston set up & everything to do w/ heat & tune. It's usually not seen 'cause the reason that someone might look @ the area is from a more serious failure & not to look for flaking. Don't really need any assistance on the subject, but, I do appreciate the comments. Wanted to let Nasty know that I had found the reason why the chromoly rings had caused a combustion chamber pressure reduction.

What I meant by setup properly, was that if the rings fit the piston properly, and have the right depth, then the ring will have less flex. the deeper the ring groove, the longer the ring will last. And I'm sure as u know, flexing is the biggest thing that leads to cracking/chiping of the coating. Not to mention the piston to ring wear that will happen if the ring isn't the coorrect thickness, which would also lead to premature failure.

Idk why, but for some reason, I don't see knock being one of the causes. Heat, yes. Knock, I can't see how.

The way I'm looking at it, the only thing the ring interacts with, is the cylinder wall(and piston obviously). When we did the machine work to my motor, there was a lot of debate on what piston to wall clearance to run. Some sources said .004-.005, manley said depending on piston material and Block material, anywhere from .003-.007. But I wanted it tight, so we went w a .0025 clearance.

The point I'm getting at here, is that that ring doesn't see as much "combustion" as ppl would think. My motor for example like I said has .0025 ptw. That's around .0012 per side. For anyone reading who doesn't know how thick tht is, its right around 1/4 as thick as a sheet of paper. Not to mention after that cylinder warns up, tht piston really tightens up. So the rings only seeing around .001 worth of harsh combustion.


Now the typical Ls1 ring if I hadda guess is about .200 across. The amount of "drag" the cylinder wall creates on these rings can be quite a but at times. And thts why u need to have the depth and thickness of the groove in mind when buying rings. If the rings are too short, they will have room to move/wear. And get as wide of a ring as u can, bc the further the ring sits Into the piston, the less flex also.

And if ur worried about rings, run the motor at 150-160*, and run atleast 15-40, I run 20-50. The less heat, and friction u have on those rings, The longer they will last.

An engines biggest enemy is friction. 99% of failures are friction related.

hey dee. your hood CAN be repaired. mine was messed up in the same spot and i had it fixed. the guy i used has done a few of them. looks great when hes done. is it a true gm ss hood? if not u gotta as yourself if its worth fixing cause its not a cheap fix.

Thanks Bob, but, as stated, don't need any further assistance. Also, would not run 15-40 or 20-50 in a car that never sees oil temps above 225*F. The viscosity, SUS doesn't reach 70 on 50 'till 250*F+. Similarly, 15 & 20 are far above 70 SUS during start up. 70 SUS is the universal oil viscosity that OE spec engines are designed for. Most 30-40 oils reach 70 SUS @ 100*C or 212*F. Best oil for an LS OE spec engine is 0-40, as has been verified by dozens of used oil analysis results that can be found on Bobis theoilguy web site. 0 is closest to 70 SUS upon start up, when the oil is @ ambient temps.