Setting Piston Ring Gap

I got all my engine parts out and on a table so I can start putting things together. Last night I started doing ring gaps with the filer. @alexwlwsn was a good buddy pal and answered a few questions. I will break it down for anyone else looking to do it. No, it is not hard, YES it is boring and long and YOU HAVE TO REMAIN FOCUSED. Once I got into the swing of things I put the new mummy movie on as it is perfect for this task and terrible.

These are the items I used.

• WD-40 - Cleaning Cylinder Walls and Bearing Crank Journals
• Naptha - Cleaning Bearings, Rings and Various Other Parts
• SuperTech 5w30 - Oiling Rings and Pistons and various other bits
• Proform 66785 Piston Ring Filer Manual
• Lisle 33500 Piston Ring Installer
• Feeler Gauges
• ProForm 67652 Piston Ring Squaring Tool - This is not "necessary" but it works really well and is one less thing to mess with
• Scott Pro Grade Rags In A Box

These videos were very helpful. Video1 Video2 Video3 Video4 watch them, then watch them each 5 more times

1. Lay out all your rings and label them per cylinder. Keep track of this. READ THE SHEET that came with your pistons. My pistons were balanced to the rotating assembly so they were all numbered. #1 hole is closest to the timing side. Make sure to file the rings and keep track of what hole they go in. KNOW YOUR HOLES and KEEP SHIT CLEAN YO
2. Now clean the cylinder walls real good with wd40 until rags stay white then lube with oil.
3. Start with cylinder 1, grab your silver top ring and put it into the cylinder writing side up. Check the gap , it will be tight and not at spec. Your spec depends on your goals. I went .020 Top Ring and .024 Bottom Ring. This will be good for 30+ psi and others have run it with good results. Too big of a gap and you eat oil. Too tight and you can bind the rings and have a real bad time.
4. Now start grinding, I ground one side as a few videos said that was fine but if you want to take a little off both go ahead. I did it as one side is factory straight and I could compare easily. When using the grinder face the ring up the same as it would be on the piston. Grind forward "clockwise if you are facing the grinder in this pic" Watch the videos on good techniques and shiz it takes a bit to get comfy. Count your turns , grind 5 , check in cylinder, grind more check etc etc until you are at your spec.
5. Once your top ring is at spec now do the 2nd compression black ring to spec and set aside, keep track of what cylinder they go in as you have now sized them to that specific cylinder. Pay attention and keep them in the proper position when grinding and checking. Take your time as you can always grind a little more but can not add material.
6. Put a shitty movie on and do this for all of your top and 2nd rings, you do not need to do this for the bottom 3 oil rings. Only grind the Top and 2nd ring to spec. This took me about 2 hours going nice and slow and triple checking things. YOU DO NOT WANT TO FUCK THIS UP
7. You will need to debur the rings a bit, if you do no debur them they will catch and not slide around the piston smoothly. When you go to put them on the piston you will want to slide them in and out and around a few times "giggity" to make sure they are not catching and it is free to move. DO NOT go wild with the filing you want to take off just enough to clean up burs so that it can move freely.
8. Top Compression Ring is the silver ring, writing on the ring goes toward top of piston, 2nd Compression Ring is the Black Ring and there is a dot on it, that dot goes to the top of the piston. Other 3 rings go on the bottom as you can see in the pic and videos. Lube these bad boys up before install. I used a small pick to move the rings to their proper position.
9. Double check that the rings are all in the right position. Next we will install them in the block. This is also tedious , listen to some turbo sounds on youtube to get your mojo back.

 

@JohnnyTightlips need some answers lol , have Manley 2618s 87.75 seen another thread saying .027 will consume oil , Manley instructions say it should be the same for both rings but seen others say .020 and .024 has worked well , what should I run would it depend on the ring ?

 

Just run what I ran and make 600whp and top off your oil every once in a while. I ran those specs because that is what I read from others and it seemed to work well for me.

 

so if you had to do it again would you run the same ring gap ?

 

Yes, it worked great and I didn't have a ton of blow by. I daily drove it all summer and winter.